
Glass. 
Book. 




THE 

CATHOLIC 

BOCTMIJVM OW *4 TMINITY 9 

PROVED BY ABOVE 

AN HUNDRED SHORT AND CLEAR ARGUMENTS, 

EXPRESSED IN THE 

TERMS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE, 

COMPARED AFTER A MANNER ENTIRELY NEW, 

AND 

Digested under the four following titles : 

1. The Divinity of Christ. I 3. The Plurality of Persons. 

2. The Divinity of the Holy Ghost. | 4. The Trinity in Unity. 

WITH A FEW REFLECTIONS, 

occasionally interspersed, upon some of the arian writers, 

PARTICULARLY DR. S. CLARKE I 
TO WHICH IS ADDED, 

A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE, 

£WEB TO SOME POPULAR ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE TRINITY. 



BY THE LATE 

WILLIAM JONES, M. A. F. R. S. 

P.ECTOR OF PASTON, ^NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, AND MINISTER OF 
NAYLAND, IN SUFFOLK. 

i'hoa shalt answer for me, O Lord my God. Psalm xxxviii. 15. 
Vot in wards which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost 
:jeth ; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 1 Cor. ii. )3. 



THE FIRST AMERICAN, 
^ROM THE SEVENTH LONDON EDITION. 



NEW-YORK: 
7BM SHEDBY WHITING AND WATSON, 96 BROADWAY, 
ue & Gould r Print. 9 w aH-street. 






% *% V 



£Tuo 



This tract is in the list of books disper- 
sed by u The Society for promoting Chris- 
tian Knowledge," as a work well calculated 
to disseminate the knowledge of evangelical 
truth, at a time, when the enemies of our 
holy faith are busy in their endeavors to un- 
dermine it. 



TO THE REVEREND AND WORTH! 

THE VICE-CHANCELLOR, 

THE HEADS OF HOUSES, 

AND OTHER MEMBERS OF 

THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 

THE FOLLOWING DEFENCE 

OP THE 
DOCTRINE OF THE EVER BLESSED TRINITY 

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 
BY 

THE AUTHOR, 



A 



TABLE 



OS TEE 



CONTENTS, 



^£^f 



INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE. 

Page. 

THE Christian religion is distinguished from 

other religions, by its object of worship - 13 — 19 

Difference of opinions no argument against 

truth 22 

Whence this difference proceeds - - - 23 — 30 

Men differ about plain facts, as well as Chris- 
tian Doctrines 25 — 27 

Men are subject to a state of mind, in which 

they cannot bear the truth 27 

Remedy against error 31 

The fundamental error of modern Arianism 32 

CHAP. I. 

The divinity of Chr st demonstrated by a 
comparison of such texts as serve to inter- 
pret one another ---..--- 39 

A2 



6 CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Single texts abused by Avians, cleared up 

by a comparison with other texts - t 63 

Divinity of Christ proved, by another se- 
ries of arguments ---,---. 72 

The word consubstantial justified by the 
terms of scripture ---.-«,. 76 

CHAP. II. i 

The divinity of the Holy Ghost demonstra- 
ted by a comparison of different texts - 83 

Objections answered by the scripture - - 97 

The great usefulness of the Old Testament, 

in this subject of the trinity - - - - 101 

Br. Clarke's sophistical treatment of the 

Bible -------..-- 102 

CHAP. III. 

Ctod is distinguished in the Old Testament, 
by a great variety of plural names and 
expressions ------.-» 106 

The divine plurality is a trinity of persons 118 

The controverted text of 1 John v. 7. cited 

by the Latins before the council of Nice - 1 23 

An instance of Dr. Clarke's distress and 
sophistry, in evading the terms Lord of 
hosts, as applied to Christ by St. John 127 

A caution against a trite artifice of the 

Arian writers --------- 127 — 129 

CHAP. IV. 

The unity of the trinity demonstrated, 1. 
By the application of the incommunica- 
ble name Jehovah, and other supreme 
appellations, to the three persons «■ - 130 



CONTENTS, 7 

Page. 

2 By the same divine attributes equally as- 

cribed to them - 137 

3 By an ineffable communion, in the same 

acts of omnipotence 139 

A summary of the whole work, in a con- 
clusion ------ 144 

A practical address to the Catholic reader 150 

A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 

The origin and issue of Arianism - - - 155 

I. Arian writers work upon the pride of 

the common people ------ 157 

II. They tell them their common sense is 

a sufficient guide without the clergy 159 

III. They invest the people with a right of 
judging as they please 161 

IV. They try to set them against the 
Athanasian creed 163 

Their objection returns much stronger up- 
on themselves 164 

V. They forge a contradiction, and put it 

into the Athanasian creed - - - - 164 

VI. Fallible Avians rail at the orthodox 
for being fallible men : yet these fal- 
lible men do not deliver their own 
doctrines, but such as they receive 

from an infallible God 165 

VII. Their prostitution of Protestant prin- 
ciples 166 

VIII. Faith of the first reformers reflected 
upon by Arian writers; but is an ar- 
gument against themselves - - - 170 

IX. They think the reformed faith as bad 
as popish idolatry : but the ground of 
their accusation is weak and blas- 
phemous 171 



8 CONTENTS- 

Page, 

They alter the scripture to keep this accu- 
sation in countenance ----- 17? 

X A sophistical objection to the Litany, 

by the author of The Confessional - 177 

XJ. The Avians plead seriously for the re- 
moval of the orthodox faith, because 
it is offensive to Jews and Turks - 1 70 

XII. They encourage the people with the 
example of some of the Arian clergy- 
men - - - 182 

They court the mob for their assistance 

against the church ------ 188 

A warning to the people not to be cheated 
once more into their own ruin ; from 
which there will probably be no se- 
cond restoration ------ 184 



PREFACE 

TO THE 

THIRD EDITION 



MY bookseller having solicited me to republish this 
iittle treatise, I have corrected the typographical errors 
of the last edition, and enlarged some passages of the 
work itself. 

The attempt of a late bishop of Clogher to propa- 
gate Arianism in the church of Ireland, induced me 
to keep the doctrine of the trinity in my thoughts for 
some years ; and I had a particular attention to it, as 
often as the scriptures either of the Old or New Testa- 
ment, were before me. This little book was the fruit of 
my study ; of which I have seen some good effects 
already, and ought not to despair of seeing more be- 
fore I die. 

Many other observations have occurred to me since 
the first publication, which I should willingly have 
added. But some readers might have been discour- 
aged, if I had presented them with a book of too large 
a size: and the merits of the cause lie in a small 
compass. 

The republication of this work, though merely ac- 
cidental, is not unseasonable at this time, when we 
are taught from the press,* (and the author seems to 
be very much in earnest) that the only sure way of 
reducing Christianity to its primitive purity, is to abol- 
ish all creeds and articles. But the great rock of of- 
fence, with this writer, is the trinity ; to get rid of 
which, he would at once dissolve our whole ecclesias- 
tical constitution and form of worship. 

This wild project furnishes a melancholy confirma- 
tion of the censure passed on us by some learned Pro- 

* Id a sew work, entitled Tbr Confession ai. 



10 PREFACE. 

testants abroad ; who have reflected upon England as 
a country productive of literary monsters ;* where 
some old heresy is frequently rising up, as old comets 
have been supposed to do, with new and portentous 
appearances. And the reader whose sight can pen- 
etrate through the vehement accusations of Popery, 
bigotry, persecution, imposition, and other fiery va- 
pours with which this author hath surrounded his per- 
formance, will discover little, if any thing, more than 
Arianism at the centre. 

The scripture is the only rule that can>enable us to 
judge*, whether that or the Catholic doctrine of the 
trinity is more agreeable to truth : therefore I have 
confined myself to this unexceptionable kind of evi- 
dence for the proof of the latter, and have made the 
scripture its own interpreter. But our adversaries, 
though they allow the sufficiency of the scripture, and 
unjustly pretend to distinguish themselves from us by 
insisting upon it, do nevertheless make such frequent 
use of a lower sort of evidence to bias common read- 
ers, and shew the expediency of what they are pleas- 
ed to call reformation ; that I have thought proper to 
exibit a specimen of their method of proceeding in that 
Tespect, by adding to this edition A Letter to the 
Common People^ in answer to some popular arguments 
against the trinity. These arguments are extracted 
chiefly from a small book, entitled, An Appeal to the 
Common Sense of all Christian people ; a thing very 
highly commended by the author of the Confessional^ 
But in this author's estimation, every writer that op- 

* Carpzov. Pref. in Pseudo Critic : Whistonii. 

f " Which book," (says he) " has passed through two editions with- 
out any sort of reply that I have heard of. This looks as if able 
ters were not wiling to meddle with the subject, or that willing wri- 
writers were not able to manage it," p. 32(h The Rev. Mr. Lan- 
don published an answer to this book in 1764, printed for Whiston and 
White : and he has mentioned another himself in a note. But had the 
case really been as he hath reported in his text, it will by no means 
follow, that a book is therefore unanswerable, because it hath received 
no answer. If this be good logic, I could present him with a c©a- 
dusion or two, which he would not very well like 



PREFACE, 11 

poses the faith of the church of England, is ipso facto 
invincible: and consequently, this retailer of Dr, 
Clarke's opinions, whoever he is, must come in for his 
share of merit and applause ; which I by no means 
envy him. 

So far as the scripture itself hath been thought to fur- 
nish any objections to the received doctrine, I judged 
it the fairer and the surer way, to answer them as they 
were offered by Dr. Clarke himself; and have there- 
fore no apology to make for neglecting some of his 
disciples, who have not made any improvement on his 
arguments ; as I do not find that this gentleman hath : 
the second edition of whose Appeal was published in 
1754, since which there have been two editions of the 
Catholic doctrine in England, and one or more in 
Ireland. 

By all the observations I have been able to make, 
the greater number of those who disbelieve the trinity 
upon principle (for many do it implicitly, and are cre- 
dulous in their unbelief) do not profess to take their 
notions of God from the Bible, but affect to distinguish 
themselves from the common herd by drawing them 
from the fountains of reason and philosophy. We 
cannot be persuaded, that the trinity is denied by rea- 
soners of this complexion, because ihe scripture hath 
not revealed it : but do rather suspect, that some philo- 
sophers dissent from this point of Christian doctrine, 
because they are not humble enough to take the scrip- 
ture as a test of their religious opinions. In which 
case, the whole labor of collecting of texts, and fram- 
ing of comments, and fishing for various readings, is an 
after-thought. It is submitted to rather for apology than 
for proof; to reconcile readers of the scripture to that 
doctrine, which they would be more jealous of receiv- 
ing if they knew it to have been originally borrowed 
v from another quarter. He that would deceive a 
Christian, can seldom do his work effectually without 
a Bible in his hand : a consideration, which may help 
us to a sight of the consequences, if persons were per- 



12 PREFACE. 

mitted to teach in our churches without any previous 
inquiry concerning their religious sentiments, and so 
allowed t© take the same liberty, either through mis- 
take or ill design, as was taken by the arch deceiver 
in the wilderness,* who never meant to use the scrip- 
ture for edification, but only for destruction ; not to 
apply it as an instrument of good, but to turn it, as far 
as he was able, into an instrument of evil. The Bible 
was given us for the preservation of the kingdom of 
Christ upon earth ; as the book of statutes in this king- 
dom is intended to secure the authority of the govern- 
ment, together with the life, peace, and property of 
every individual ; and we want no prophet to foreshew 
us the consequences, if all the malcontents in the na- 
tion were allowed to be public interpreters of the laws. 
These considerations I leave the judicious to apply 
as they find occasion. I use them chiefly as hints, 
for the benefit both of such as may be in danger of 
wresting the scriptures to their own destruction, and 
of such philosophers as those alluded to by St. Paul,\ 
who through the profession of fancied wisdom fell into 
real folly, and purchased a reputed knowledge of 
things natural and metaphysical, at the lamentable 
expence of losing the knowledge of God. 

Pluckley, Jan. 1, 1767. 

* Matt. W. 6 t Rem. I 22. 1 Cor. I 21. 



TO THE READER, 



THE Christian religion is best known and distin- 
guished by the God proposed in it, as the object of our 
faith and obedience : and as there is no true religion, 
but the religion of Christians, so is there no true God, 
but the God of Christians. 

Before the coming of Christ, and the fulfilling of the 
law, God was known by the name of Jehovah, the God 
of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. The Israel- 
ites, who were the seed of Abraham, and drew their 
whole religion from a divine revelation, had the know- 
ledge of the true God ; and the people of every other 
nation, who were aliens from the commonwealth of Is- 
rael, and strangers from the covenants of promise, were 
also without God in the world* Though they talked 
much of God, and wrote much of him, and offered him 
many sacrifices, yet they knew him not : the being 
they served, was not God, but another in the place of 
him, falsely called by his name. And though some 
modern Christians have forgot there was any differ- 
ence, yet the very heathens themselves, upon some 
occasions, were ready enough to allow it. Naaman 
the Syrian, when he was cured of his leprosy by the 
prophet Elisha, made a public confession of it — Be- 

a Ephesians ii. 12, 
B 



14 TO THE READER, 

hold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, 
hut in Israel.** The same is affirmed by the inspired 
psalmist — All the Gods of the heathens are idols ; c and 
God himself declares them all to have been vanities A 
The case is now with the Christians under the gos- 
pel, as it anciently was with the Jews under the law : 
they believe in the only true God ; while the unchris- 
tian part of mankind, who are by far the majority, 
either know him not, or wilfully deny him ; as Pha- 
raoh did the God of the Hebrews when he was told of 
him. And we are now got to such a pitch of indevo- 
tion and ignorance, that among those who profess and 
call themselves Christians, there are too many who 
are almost come to be heathens without knowing it. 
For there is a fashionable notion propagated by most 
of our moral writers, and readily subscribed to by those 
who say their prayers but seldom, and can never find 
time to read their Bible, that all who worship any 
God, worship the same God; as if we worshipped the 
three letters of the word God, instead of the being 
meant and understood by it. The universal prayer of 
Mr. Alexander Pope was composed upon this plan ; 
wherein the supreme being is addressed as a common 
father of all, under the names, Jehovah, Jove, and Lord. 
And this humour of confounding things, which ought 
to be distinguished at the peril of our souls, and of 
comprehending believers and idolators under one and 
the same religion, is called a catholic spirit, that shews 
the very exaltation of Christian charity. But God. 
It is to be feared, will require an account of it under 

b 2 Kings v. 15. c Psalm xcvi. 5. d Jeremiah xiv, 22= 



TO THE READER. 15 

another name ; and though the poet could see no dif- 
ference, but has mistaken Jove or Jupiter for the same 
father of all with the Lord Jehovah ; yet the apostle 
has instructed us better ; who, when the priest of Ju- 
piter came to offer sacrifice, exhorted him very pas- 
sionately to turn from those vanities unto the living 
God; e well knowing that he whom the priest adored 
under the name of Jupiter, was not the living God, but 
a creature, a nothing, a vanity. Yet the catholic spi- 
rit of a moralist can discern no difference ; and while 
it pretends some zeal for a sort of universal religion, 
common to believers and infidels, betrays a sad indif- 
ference for the Christian religion in particular. This 
error is so monstrous in a land enlightened by the gos- 
pel, and yet so very common amongst us at present, 
that I may be pardoned for speaking of it in the man- 
ner it deserves. And let me beseech every serious 
person, who is willing to have his prayers heard, to 
consider this matter a little better, and use a more 
correct form ; for God, who is jealous of his honor, 
and has no communion with idols, will certainly re- 
ject the petition that sets him upon a level with Baal 
and Jupiter. 

The true God is he that was in Christ reconciling 
the world to himself; there is none other but he ; and 
if this great characteristic be denied, or any other as- 
sumed in its stead, a man is left without God; after 
which, he may call himself a Deist, if he will ; but 
his God is a mere idol of the imagination, and has no 
corresponding reality in the whole universe of beings. 

€ Acts xiv, 15, 



16 TO THE READER. 

The modern Jews, by denying their God to have 
been manifest in the flesh, are as effectually departed 
from the true God, as their forefathers were, when they 
danced before the golden calf, and called their idola- 
trous service a feast to the Lord. For the being of 
God is not an object of sight, but of faith ; it enters 
first into the heart; and if it be wrong there, the first 
commandment is broken : if a figure of it be set up 
before the eyes, then the second is broken likewise. 
The first forbids us to have any other God ; the second, 
to make any graven image of him. Now though we 
make no image, yet if with the heart we believe in any 
God different from the true, the idolatry indeed may 
be less, but the apostacy is the same. And this seems 
to be the case of the Jew. 

The Mahometans are another set of infidels, who 
abhor idols, but have in express terms denied the Son 
of God, and set up an idol of the imagination, a God 
in one person. They inveigh bitterly against the Chris- 
tians for worshipping three Gods ; for so they state the 
doctrine of a trinity in unity, as some others have done 
ijeside them. 

In answer to all these abominations of the Deist, the 
im% and the Mahometan, and to shew that no unbe- 
liever of any denomination can be a servant of the 
true God, it is written — whosoever denieth the Son, the 
same hath not the Father : f and again — whosoever trans* 
gresselh and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath 
not God.S And let the Socinians, who have not only 
vindicated the religion of Mahomet, but preferred it to 

i Uobnii. 23. g 2 John 9. 



TO THE READER, 17 

the Christianity of the Church of England, which 
with them is no better nor other than a sort of pagan- 
ism and heathenism,* let them consider what a share 
they have in this condemnation. 

And to bring this matter home to the Arians ; it is 
to be observed, that every article of the Christian faith 
depends upon the doctrine of a trinity in unity, if 
that be given up, the other doctrines of our religion 
must go with it, and so it has been in fact, that the 
authors who have written against the trinity, have 
also disputed away some other essential parts of Chris- 
tianity ; particularly the doctrines of the satisfaction 
and of original sin. 

The whole Bible treats of little else but our crea- 
tion, redemption, sanctification, resurrection and glori- 
fication, by the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit : 
and the reader will find hereafter, that there is neither 
name, act, nor attribute of the godhead, that is not 
shared in common by all the persons of the trinity. 
If, therefore, the persons of Christ and the Spirit are 
not God in the unity of the Father, then the prayers 
and praises we offer to them, as the authors of every 
blessing, will not be directed to the supreme Lord and 
God, beside whom no other is to be worshipped, but to 
his creatures and instruments : which overthrows the 
sense of our whole religion ; and drives us upon a 
sort of second-rate faith and worship, which, beside 

* See Leslie's Theological works, fol. vol. i. p. 218. where the reader 
may find a great deal more to the same purpose j and particularly an 
epistle of the Socinians, to the Morocco embassador, in the time of 
Charles II. a great curiosity, wherein their whole scheme is laid open, 
t© the bottom by themselves, 

B 2 



18 TO THE READER. 

the blasphemy of it, can be nothing but confusion and 
contradiction. It is no wonder then, that the Avians 
and Socinians, with their several under-sects and divi- 
sions, who have fallen into this snare, and departed 
from the divine unity, while they pretend to be the 
only men who assert it, have never yet been able to 
agree in the forms of religious worship. Some of them 
allowing that Christ is to receive divine worship, but 
always with this reserve, that the prayer tend ulti- 
mately to the person of the Father. So that Christ is 
to be worshipped, only he is not to be worshipped : 
and if you should venture, when you are at the point 
of death, to say with St. Stephen — Lord Jesus, receive 
my spirit* 1 — and confess the person of Jesus to be the 
God of the spmts of all flesh 1 by committing your own 
spirit into his hands ; you are to take care not to die 
without throwing in some qualifying comment, to as- 
sure him you do it only in hypocrisy, not meaning him 
but another. Others, again, knowing this distinction 
to be vain and indefensible, and the same for substance 
with the Latria and Dulia by which the church of 
Rome excuses her adoration of the blessed Virgin, <fcc. 
have fairly got rid of it, by denying to the person of 
Christ any divine worship or invocation at all ; which 
is the case with our Socinian Unitarians here in Eng- 
land; for those of Poland are quite of another mind. 
How far such differences as these must needs affect 
a liturgy, it is very easy to foresee : and that it will 
for ever be as impossible to frame a creed or service to 
please all those who bear the name of Christians, as 

h Acts vii. 59. i Numbers xvi, 22, 



TO THE READER. 19 

to make a eoat that shall fit men of all sizes.* Prayer 
and divine worship and religious confession, are the 
fruit and breath of faith; and out of the abundance of 
the heart, the mouth speaketh ;k so that until we are 
agreed in matters of faith, there is neither hope nor 
possibility of our agreeing in any form of worship, 
God is the fountain-head, and religion the stream that 
descends from it. Our sentiments as to religion, al- 
ways flow from the opinion we have formed of the 
divine nature ; and will be right or wrong, sweet or 
bitter, as the fountain is from whence they are deri- 
ved. It is the having a different God, that makes a 
different religion. A true God produces a true reli- 
gion; a false God, a false religion. Jews, Turks, 
Pagans, Ikists, Arians, Socinians and Christians, all 
differ about a religion, because they differ about a 
God. 

These few observations will be sufficient, I hope, 
to raise the attention of the reader ; and persuade him, 
that a right faith in God is a much more serious affair 
than some would make it ; that it is of the last con- 
cern, and hath a necessary influence upon the prac- 
tice and holiness of our lives ; that as no other devo- 
ir Matthew xii. 34. 
* Hales of Eton, in his sarcastic and malicious Tract upon Schism, 
proposes it as a grand expedient for the advancing of unity, that we 
should u consider all the liturgies, that are and ever have been ; and 
remove from them whatever is scandalous to any party, and leave 
nothing but what all agree on." He should have closed this sentence a 
little sooner; and advise us fairly and honestly to leave nothing; for 
that will certianly be the event, when the objections of all parties are 
suffered to prevail ; there being no one page of the liturgy, wherein all 
who pretend to worship God as Christians) are agreed, 



20 TO THE READER. 

tion is acceptable with God, but that which is sea- 
soned with love and charity and uniformity, the very 
mark and badge whereby his disciples are to be 
known from the men of this world, it is the principal 
duty of every Christian to know in whom he ought to 
believe, that with one mind, and with one ?nouth we may 
glorify God : l for a right notion of God, will as surely 
be followed by a sound faith, and an uniform profes- 
sion in all other points, as a false faith and a discor- 
dant worship will grow from every wrong opinion of 
him. 

All that can be known of the true God, is to be 
known by revelation. The false lights indeed of rea- 
son and nature are set up and recommended, as ne- 
cessary to assist and ratify the evidence of revelation : 
but inquiries of this kind, as they are now managed, 
generally end in the degradation of Christ, and the 
Christian religion :* till it can be shewn therefore 
that the scripture neither does nor can shine by a 
light and authority of its own, the evidence we are to 
rest in, must be drawn from thence ; and as we all 
have the same scripture, without doubt we ought all 
to have the same opinion of God. 

But here it is commonly objected, that men will be 
of different opinions, and that they have a right to 
judge for themselves ; and that when the best evi- 
dence the nature of the case will admit of is collected 
and laid before them, they must determine upon it as 

1 Rom. xv. 6. 
* You may have a proof of this from the Essay on Spirit, by compar- 
ing the book with its title, which runs thus— The Doctrine of the Trin- 
ity considered in the light oj "Reason and Nature, &c. 



TO THE READER. 21 

it appears to them, and according to the light of their 
own consciences : so that if they adhere as closely to 
their errors after they have consulted the proper evi- 
dence as they did before, we are neither to wonder 
nor to be troubled at it. 

This very moderate and benevolent way of think- 
ing, has been studiously recommended by those, who 
found it necessary to the well-being of their own 
opinions, that not a spark of zeal should be left amongst 
us. And surely it is no new thing, that the advocates 
of any particular error, next to themselves and their 
own fashion, should naturally incline to those who 
are softest, and stand least in the way. Hence it is, 
that however magisterial and insolent they may carry 
themselves in their own cause ; they always take care 
to season their writings with the praises of this frozen 
indifference, calling that Christian charity, which is 
nothing but the absence of Christianity : and any the 
least appearance of earnestness for some great and 
valuable truth, which we are unwilling to part with; 
because we hope to be saved by it, is browbeaten, 
condemned, and cast out of their moral system, under 
the name of heat, want of temper, fire, fury, &c. They 
add moreover, that articles of faith are things merely 
speculative : and that it is of little signification what a 
man believes, if he is but hearty and sincere in it : that 
is, in other words, it is a mere trifle whether we feed 
upon bread* or poison ;f the one will prove to be as 
good nourishment as the other, provided it be eaten 

* See and compare Deut. yiii. 3. Amos viii. 11. Acts xx, 23, 
t James iii. 8,- 1 Tim. iv, U 



' 



SS TO THE READER. 

with an appetite. Yet some well-meaning people are 
so puzzled and deceived by this sophistry, that they 
look upon concord among Christians as a thing im- 
practicable and desperate ; concluding a point to be 
disputable because it is disputed; and so they fall into 
a loose indifferent humor of palliating and thinking 
charitably, as it is called, of every error in faith and 
practice ; as if the church of Christ might very inno- 
cently be turned into a Babel of confusion. 

Now that men do maintain opinions strangely dif- 
ferent from one another, especially on subjects wherein 
it most concerns them to be agreed, is readily confes- 
sed : we are all witnesses of it : and, allowing them to 
be equally informed, there are but three possible sour- 
ces from whence this difference can arise. It must 
be either from God, or from the scripture, or from 
themselves. From God it cannot be, for it is a great 
evil ; it is the triumph of Deists and reprobates, and 
the best handle the enemies of Christianity ever found 
against it : and God is not the author of evil. Nor 
can it be from the scripture : to draw it thence, is but 
another way of imputing it to God. The scripture i3 
his word ; and he is answerable for the effect of his 
words when written or reported, as when they are 
suggested at first hand by the voice of his holy Spirit. 
It remains therefore, that the only source of this evil 
must be the heart of man : and that it is really so, 
will be evident from the scripture, and the plainest 
matters of fact. The account we have of this affair 
is, in short, as follows — Ever since the fall, the na- 
ture of man has been blind and corrupt ; his under- 



TO THE READER, 33 

standing darkened™ and his affections polluted : upon 
the face of the whole earth, there is no man, Jew or 
Gentile, that understandeth and seeketh after God ; n the 
natural man, or man remaining in that state wherein 
the fall left him, is so far from being able to discover 
or know any religious truth, that he hates and flies 
from it when it is proposed to him ; he receiveth not 
the things of the Spirit of God. Man is natural and 
earthly ; the things of God are spiritual and heavenly; 
and these are contrary one to the other : therefore, as 
the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God? so 
the wisdom of God is foolishness with the world. In 
a word, the sense man is now possessed of, where 
God does not restrain it, is used for evil and not for 
good : his wisdom is earthly, sensual,* devilish '? it is 
the sagacity of a brute,* animated by the malignity 
of an evil spirit. 

This being the present state of man, the scripture 
does therefore declare it necessary, that he should be 
transformed by the renewing of his mind, 9 and restored 
to that sound mind x and light of the understanding? 
that spiritual discernment? 1 with which the human na- 
ture was endued when it came from the hands of God, 
but to which it has been dead from the day that evil 
was brought into the world. And where the grace 
of God that should open the eyes, and prepare the 
heart to receive instruction, 3 * has been obstinately 

m Eph. iv. 18. q James iii. 15. u Eph. i. 18. 

n Rom. iii 11. r Jude 10. w 1 Cor. ii. 14. 

o 1 Cor. ii. 14. 9 Rom. xii. 2. x Pro. xx. 12. & xvi. I . 

p Ibid iii 19, t 2 Tim. i. 7. 

*¥xr%fza Natura! 



S4 TO THE READER. 

withstood and resisted; this blindness, which at first 
was only natural, becomes judicial; from being a defect, 
it is confirmed into a judgment ; and men are not only 
unable to discern the truth, but are settled and rivet- 
ed in error : which is the case with all those to whom 
God sends strong delusion that they should believe a lie, 
and have pleasure in unrighteousness J It is then they 
sit down in the seat of the scornful, as fools, that make 
a mock at sin? and despisers of those that are good p 
hating and railing at their fellow-creatures, only be- 
cause they are endued with the fear of God ! This is 
the last stage of blindness ; and it is referred to in 
those words of the apostle — If our gospel be hid, it is 
hid to them that are lost : b as also in that lamentation 
of our blessed Lord over the city of Jerusalem — If 
thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, 
the things that belong to thy peace ! but now they are 
hid from thine eyesS 

The absolute necessity of God's grace to lighten 
our darkness, has often been largely and faithfully in- 
sisted upon by the writers and preachers of the church 
of England but since a spirit of Deism has crept in 
among us, it has been openly slighted and contem- 
ned by some, and too much neglected by others; 
which has given an opportunity to several sorts of 
enthusiasts to make a wrong use of it : such as our 
Quakers, Methodists, and particularly the reverend 
Mr. William Law, who, after writing so excellently 
upon the vanity of the world, and the follies of hu- 

y 2 Thess. ii. 11. a 2 Timothy iii. 3. c Luke xix. 42, 
-z Proverbs xiv. 9. b 2 Corinthians iv. 3. 



TO THE READER, %0 

man life, (on which subjects he has no superior) has 
left us nothing to depend upon but imagination, and 
reduced the whole evidence of Christianity to fancied 
impulses and inspiration ; so as to render the scrip- 
tures useless, and the appointed means of grace con- 
temptible. I have observed the like to have hap- 
pened in many other instances ; that where any es- 
sential point of doctrine has been dropt by the wri- 
ters of the church, or at least not brought out to view 
so often as it should have been, it has been taken up 
by others, (as all tares are sown while the husband- 
men are asleep) and employed under some false state 
of it, to the no small disadvantage of the church and 
the Christian religion, 

T-o illustrate this subject a little farther, I shall 
make it appear by a few plain examples, that where 
mankind have been divided in their opinions with 
regard to any divine truth, it has not been owing to 
the ambiguity of its terms, or the defect of its evi- 
dence, but wholly and solely to the state and temper 
of the hearers. And thus Christ himself has instructed 
us in his parable of the sower ; that where the good 
seed of the word perishes, it is to be imputed to the 
ground and not to the seed. How else can we ac- 
count for it, that when St. Paul laid the evidence of 
the gospel before a large assembly of Jews at Rome* 
some believed the things that were spoken, and some be- 
lieved not& though the same things were spoken to 
all ? Such in general was the success of the aposto- 
lical preaching ; some few receiving the word with 

d Acts xxviii. 24, 

c 



36 TO THE READER. 

gladness, while others opposed themselves and blas- 
phemed. And though it be supposed, that words are 
more easily misunderstood th&n facts, and may admit 
of a greater latitude : yet here we shall find, that the 
same spirit which has divided mankind in what are 
called the more speculative points of faith, will also 
divide them in the plainest and most striking matters 
of fact. The resurrection of Lazarus was a matter of 
fact, seen and attested by a competent number of wit- 
nesses : but how different was the effect of it upon 
different persons ! for while it had its free course with 
many of the Jews, and moved them to believe on Jesus, 
it only moved the chief priests to hate him the more ; 
and they consulted how they might put Lazarus also 
to deaths When Jesus cured the blind and cast out 
devils, some rightly concluded — Rabbi, thou art a 
teacher come from God ; for no man can do these mira- 
cles, that thou dost, except God be with him ; f yet there 
were not a few, and they of the most learned and 
knowing too, who concluded far otherwise, that he 
cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils,^ So 
likewise, when the Holy Ghost descended on the 
apostles, and inspired them with the gift of tongues, 
some devout men were amazed and confounded at the 
miracle ; plainly seeing the hand of God in it, and 
asking what it meant, what was the end and design of 
it ? and being informed by St. Peter's discourse, that 
it was to confirm the mission of Jesus of Nazareth^ 
received his word gladly, and were baptized ; h while 

e John xii. 10, 11. g Matthew xil 2k h Acts ii. 41, 

f JohniiL 2. 



TO THE READER. 27 

oilier s, to avoid the conclusion, mocking, said, these 
men arejull of new wineS Here is a great multitude 
assembled together, all of them witnesses to the same 
fact : yet, in their opinions of it, they are as far asun- 
der as drunkenness is from inspiration. But in this 
case no Christian will raise a doubt about the real in- 
spiration of the apostles ; or deny the power of God 
to have been sufficiently manifested, because seme 
were so profane and senseless as to ridicule it, under 
the name of drunkenness. 

This self-deceit always operates by the assistance 
of some false principle contrary to the scripture ; which 
gets possession of the heart by ministering to the pas- 
sions. And till that be dispossessed, no truth will be 
suffered to enter which can in the least affect or de- 
stroy it. A man in such circumstances may see the 
truth staring him in the face ; and the clearer he sees 
it, the more he will be enraged at it. He may be 
convicted, and left without a word to say, but what 
will expose the hardness and perplexity of his heart ; 
but till it be emptied of its evil treasure, and he be- 
comes as a little child that has nothing of its own to 
oppose to the revelation of God, he cannot be con- 
verted: but will either shut his eyes and deny the ev- 
idence that is offered to him, or pretend it is a nice 
point, very difficult to be understood ; and so give a 
perverse turn to it, though it be ever so plain and in- 
telligible. 

Till the disciples of Christ resigned themselves up 
to be led into all truth by the teaching of the Holy 

i Acts v. 13. k John xvi. 12, 



28 TO THE READER. 

Spirit, they were in the state of mind I am now de- 
scribing; dull of hearing, and doubtful, and slow of 
heart. They were often warned of it ; particularly in 
the following words — Ihaveyct many things to say unto 
you, but ye cannot bear them noivM And as the di- 
vine wisdom made choice of such men for the good of 
those who should come after, so these things are writ- 
ten of them for our admonition. They had laid it 
down as a first principle, that their master's kingdom 
was to be of this world : and formed all their reason- 
ings and expectations accordingly. One was to sit at 
his right hand, another at his left ; and they were ever 
disputing which should be the greatest Any occur- 
rence that flattered this notion, was gladly received 
and made the most of; and every thing that could 
not be reconciled with it was thrust out of sight. 
When the son of man began to teach them, that he 
must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, 
and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and 
after three days rise again ; ] all these things were so 
destructive of their principle, that Peter began to re- 
luke him, as if he heard blasphemy. Christ took an 
opportunity of inculcating this doctrine afresh, when 
they were in a state of conviction at seeing him per- 
form a miracle ; endeavoring, as it were, to surprise 
ihem into a confession of its truth : but the time was 
not yet. While they wondered every one at all things 
which Jesus did, lie said unto his disciples, let these say' 
mgs sink down into your ears : for the son of man shall 
he ddivordinto the hands of men. But they understood 

:'\ 12, 1 MaTrltvE 



TO THE READER* 29 

not this say big ; it was hid from them, that they perceiv- 
ed it not, m The terms were clear and intelligible 
enough ; and the ideas conveyed by them were all 
common and familiar : but if that saying were admit" 
ted, they must part with their beloved principle : 
therefore it follows that they were afraid to ask him of 
that saying ; lest he should carry on the subject, and 
leave them no way to escape. They had already 
heard more than they would believe, and therefore, 
as to any thing farther, thought it best to remain in 
the dark. 

In short, where there is a taste and relish for the 
things that be of men, more than for the things that be 
of God, and some principle is imbibed wherein the 
passions are strongly engaged, men are to be persuad~ 
ed of any thing and of nothing : ready to take up 
with every despicable pretence, to prop and support 
their favorite opinion ; and deaf to the plainest words 
and most infallible proofs, if they tend to establish the 
other side of the question. For example ; that a Mes- 
siah was to deliver their nation, was allowed by all the 
Jews ; and they were well agreed as to the time oJ 
his coming, and the place where he should be born. 
It was to be shewn, that Jesus cf Nazareth was the 
person : and for a proof of it, they were bid to com- 
pare the scripture with the things he did and taught. 
But though he had done so many miracles before them i 
yet they believed not on him ; n and as if he had left the 
proof of his mission obscure and defective, they came 
very formally to him to ask a sign of him, afie? 

m Luke ix, 43, 44. n John xil 37, 

C 2 



SO TO THE READER. 

they had seen so many signs ; and called out to the 
very last for better evidence, bidding him come do7V?i 
from the cross, that they might see and believe. Ont 
would take these Jews to have been sceptics, who 
would persevere in their doubtings against every pro 
position that could be offered. But if we judge from 
their behaviour upon some other occasions, there ne- 
ver was a more credulous generation upon the face of 
the earth. They could receive full satisfaction from 
the most childish and inconsistent tales that ever were 
invented. The self-contradiction of Satan casting out 
Satan ; or the report of a few heathen soldiers, who 
witnessed what was done while they were asleep, could 
pass for good gospel ; while the most evident miracles, 
and the clearest prophecies, were all nothing to the 
purpose, where they did not like the conclusion. And 
for the same reason, the whole gospel itself, while it 
is the savour of life to some, is a savour of death to 
others ! as different as life and death ! yet neverthe- 
less one and the same gospel. It is like the pillar that 
stood between the camp oiJsrael and the host of Egypt, 
which was a cloud to the one, and light to the other.? 
But who will deny that the light was clear to the Is- 
raelites, because the Egyptians saw nothing but a cloud 
of darkness ? 

Behold then the true source of all our religious dif- 
ferences : they proceed from the blindness and cor- 
ruption of the human heart,increased and cherished by 
some false principle that suits with its appetites : and 
all the prudence and learning the world can boast* 

o Mark xv, 32c p Exodus xiv t 20, 



TO THE READER. 81 

will exempt no child of Adam from this miserable 
weakness : nothing but the grace of God can possibly 
remove it. Where that is suffered to enter, and the 
teart, instead of persisting in its own will, is surren- 
dered to the will of God, the whole gospel is suffi- 
ciently clear, because no text of it is any longer of- 
fensive. Of this happy change we have the best ex- 
ample in the apostles of our blessed Saviour ; who, 
when they first entered the school of Christianity, 
had a veil upon their hearts like the rest of their 
countrymen, and were strongly possessed by a spirit 
of the world, promising itself the full enjoyment of 
temporal honors and preferments. But the sufferings 
and death of their master having shewed the vanity 
of such expectations, and served in a great measure 
to beat down this earthly principle, they were ready 
for conviction ; and then their understanding was open™ 
ed, that they might understand the scriptures^ The 
evidence that before was dark and inconclusive, be- 
came on a sudden clear and irresistible ; and they, 
who had lately fled from disgrace and death as from 
th -. atest of evils, could now rejoice that they were 
found worthy to suffer. Their opinion was altered, 
because their affections were cleansed from this world : 
that mire and clay was washed off from their eyes in 
the true waters of Siloam, and now they could see all 
things cle i ly 

What has been here said upon the conduct of our 
Saviour's disciples and the unbelieving Jews, may be 
applied to all those who dispute any article of the 

q Luke xxiv. 45, 



TO THE READER 

Christian faith ; and particularly the doctrine of the 
ever-blessed trinity ', as revealed to us in the holy scrip- 
tures. For we shall certainly find, that some false 
principle is assumed, which flatters the pride of hu- 
man nature. It abhors restraint and subjection; and 
is ever aspiring, right or wrong, to be distinguished 
from the common herd, and to exalt itself against the 
knowledge of Gods What this principle is, we shall 
very atten discover : it is publicly owned and gloried 
in by every considerable writer that of late years ha3 
meddled with this subject. I shall instance in the 
learned Dr. Clarke ; because he is deservedly placed 
at the head of the Arian disputants in this kingdom. 

He affirms in his first proposition, that the one god, 
spoken of in Matt. xix. 17. and elsewhere, is only 
one PERSON ; and then adds, " this is the first prin- 
ciple of natural religion"* 

So then here are two different religions; by one of 
which it is proved, that the one God is the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost : that he is therefore three 
persons. But it is the first principle of the other reli- 
gion, that he is but one person : though how can that 
be reconciled with the practice of the whole heathen 
world, who are so far from discovering this one per- 
son, that they held Gods many, and Lords many* is not 
very easy to determine. And whence comes this re- 
ligion ? It is confessed to be drawn from nature ! It is 
fhe gospel of the natural man, unsanctified by divine 

r 2 Cor. x. 5. & 1 Cor. viii. 5, 

* See Script. JDoct. p. ii, $ 1. 






TO THB READER. ,33 

grace, and uninstructed by any light from above ; and 
owes its birth to that fountain of darkness and self- 
conceit, from whence has sprung all the confusion and 
imagination that ever was introduced into the religion 
of God. And what wonder, if nature should operate 
as strongly in an Arian or a Socinian against the mys- 
tery of the trinity, as it did in the Jews against the 
law and the prophets, and in the unconverted disciples 
against the doctrine of the cross? If it be laid down 
as a first principle ;, that God is but one person; then it 
will be utterly impossible, so long as this principle 
keeps possession, that any person, of common sense 
enough to know the meaning of words, should quietly 
receive and embrace a revelation in those parts of it, 
where it teaches us that God is three persons : these two 
principles being so diametrically opposite, that while 
he holds to the one, a voice from the dead will not 
persuade him of the other. Therefore, I say again, 
we ought not to wonder, if that man should remain 
for ever invincible, who BRINGS to the scripture 
that knowledge of God, which he is bound, as a Chris= 
tian, to RECEIVE from it. 

What then will be the consequence in this case ? 
The practice of the Deist, who carries on this argu- 
ment to its proper issue, is to deny the scripture reve- 
lation, because his natural religion is contrary to it ; 
and they cannot both be true. But the partial unbe- 
liever, who allows the scripture to be supported by 
^uch external evidence as he cannot answer, while 
his reason objects to the matter contained in it ; must 
follow the example of the Jews, and reconcile the scrip- 
ture where he cannot believe it. Thus they treated 



34 TO TfiE READER. 

the law of Moses. We know, said they, that God spake 
wito Moses :* therefore, they readily granted his law 
to have a divine authority : but as it would not serve 
their turn in its own proper words, they put a false gloss 
of tradition upon the face of it, to hide its true com- 
plexion ; and then complained that the scripture was 
not clear enough : and if you used it as a testimony 
to Jesus Christ they would stone you for a blasphemer. 
What shall we say then ? that the Jews were of a 
different opinion from the Christia?is ? and that this was 
their way of understanding the scripture ? No : God for- 
bid. For if we will believe the scripture itself, it was 
their way of denying it. Hadye believed Moses, says 
our Lord, ye would have believed me: and he gives us 
upon this occasion, the true grounds an(f reasons of their 
unbelief; because they received honor one of another, 
and had not the love of God in them. u Every hypothesis 
of human growth, which was pretty sure to agree with 
their complexion, and reflected some honor upon them- 
selves by exalting the nature of man, that can make 
a religion for itself and comes in its own name ; that 
they would gladly receive. But if any thing was of- 
fered to them in the name of God, to be received for 
the love of him, and the spiritual comfort of a pure 
conscience, and the hope of a better world : it was 
rejected, as an encroachment upon their natural rights, 
and an invective against the innocent pleasures of a 
carnal Jerusalem. And so it is with us at this time : 
for if an author does but hang out the sign of nature 
and reason in his title-page, there are readers in plen- 

t John ix. 29, u See John v. 39,— ad fin, 



TO THE READER. 35 

ly, whe will buy up and swallow his dregs by whole- 
sale : but if God, of his infinite mercy and condescen- 
sion, shews to them the way of salvation >, his words are 
to be abstracted from the evidence upon which he re- 
quires us to believe them, then put into this alembic 
I of reason, and demonstrated to be no poison, before 
they can be brought to taste them. And if they should 
happen to be a little disagreeable to flesh and blood, 
and the operation should miscarry, the fault is charg- 
ed upon God, and not upon themselves, who ought to 
have gone another way to work : as they will cer- 
tainly find. 

We conclude, therefore, because Christ has affirm- 
ed it, that every degree of doubt and disputation 
against the words of God, is just so much unbelief; 
proceeding not from the head or understanding, but 
from the heart w and affections. And the world is fil- 
led with the vain jangling of uncertainty, for this 
short reason — all men have not faith. x 

w Heb, Hi. 12, x 2 Thess, iii. 2, 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



In all the texts which are compared to- 
gether in the following work, those particular 
words, whereon the stress of the comparison 
lies, are printed in capitals; that the argu- 
ment obtained from them may shew itself to 
the reader upon the first inspection. And I 
hope, after what has been observed to him in 
the foregoing discourse, that this is the only 
admonition he will stand in need of. The 
arguments I have drawn from the scripture 
are, to the best of my knowledge, most of 
them new ; and, if I may judge from my own 
mind, the manner in which they are laid 
down, is more likely to convince, than any 
I have yet seen. Had I thought otherwise, I 
could easily have forborne to trouble myself 
or the world with the transcribing and print- 
ing them. The end I have proposed is not 

D 



88 ADVERTISEMENT. 

to obtain any reputation (to which this is not 
the way) but to do some little good, of which 
there is much need. I do therefore sincerely 
recommend the following work, and every 
reader of it, to the grace and blessing of al= 
mighty (rod, well knowing, that unless the 
Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh 
hut in vain. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE 



bivijvity of chmis- 



I. 

Isa. viii. 13, 1*. Sanctify the Lord of 
hosts himself, and let him be your fear^ 
and let him be your dread : and he shall 
be for a sanctuary ; but for a stone of 
stumbling and rock of offence to both 
houses of Israel. 

1 Pet. ii. 7> 8. The stone which the build- 
ers disallowed, the same is made the head 
of the corner, and a stone of stumbling 
and rock of offence. 

Instead of reasoning upon these words of the pro- 
phet Isaiah, according to any private interpretation, 
I add another passage of scripture, wherein they are 
expressly applied to the person of Christ ; and then 
shew what must be the result of both. If the scrip- 
ture, thus compared with itself, be drawn up into an 



40 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 

argument, the conclusion may indeed be denied, and 
so may the whole Bible, but it cannot be answered. 
For Example, 

The stone of stumbling, and rock of offence, as the 
former text affirms, is the Lord of hosts himself; a 
name which the Arians allow to no other but the 
one, only, true, and supreme God. a 

But, this stone of stumbling and rock of offence, as it 
appears from the latter text, is no other than Christ, 
the same stone which the builders refused; therefore, 

Christ is the LORD OF HOSTS HIMSELF : 
and the Arian is confuted upon his own principles. 

II. 

fsa. vi. 5. Mine eyes have seen the king, 

the Lord of hosts. 
John xii. 41. These things said Esams, 

when he saw his (Christ's) glory, and 

spake of him. 

Jesus is the person here spoke of by St. John ; whose 
glory ^saias is declared to have seen upon that occa- 
sion, where the prophet affirms of himself, that his eyes 
had seen the Lord of hosts : therefore, 
> is the LORD OF HOSTS. 

III. 

Csa. xliv. 6. Thus saith the Lord, the king 

a See an Essay on Spirit, p. 65. Cfarfce's Doct. of the Tim C. 1^ 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, 41 

X)f Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of 
hosts, I am the first, and I am the 
last, and besides me there is no God. 
Rev, xxii. 13. I (Jesus) am alpha and ome^ 
ga, the beginning and the end, the first 
and the last. 

The titles of the first and the last are confined to 
him alone, besides whom there is no God; but Jesus hath 
assumed these titles to himself: therefore Jesus is that 
God, besides whom there is no other. Or thus — there 
is no God besides him who is the first and the last : 
but, Jesus is the first and the lasts therefore, besides 
Jesus there is no other God, 

IV. 

Isa. xliii. 11. I even I am the Lord, and 

besides me there is no Saviour. 
-8 Pet. ill- 18. Our Lord and Saviour Je? 

sus Christ. 

Jesus Christ, then, is our Saviour ; or, as he is cal- 
led, John iv. 42. the Saviour of the world. But unless 

a The argument drawn from this text will be equally convincing, 
which ever way it be taken — Jesus Christ is a Saviour, therefore he is 
Jehovah, the Lord— Jesus Christ is Jehovah, therefore he is the. Saviour. 
The best observations I have ever met with upon the name Jthovah, 
and its application to the second person of the trinity, are to be found 
in a Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity, from the exceptions of a 
late pamphlet, entitled an Essay on Spirit — by the learned Dr. T. Ran- 
dolph, president of C. C. C. in Oxford ,• which I would desire the reader 
to consult, from p. 61 to 71 of pt. I. 

D2 



4& THE DIVIiSITY OF CHRIST, 

lie were God, even the Lord, Jehovah, as well as man. 
he could not be a Saviour; because the Lord has de- 
clared, there is no Saviour beside himself. It is 
therefore rightly observed by the apostle, Phil. ii. 
9. that God, in dignifying the man Christ with the 
name of JESUS, hath given him a name above every 
name, even that of a Saviour, which is his own name, 
and such as can belong to no other. 

V. 

liev. xxii. 6. The Lord God of the "holy 
prophets sent his angel to shew unto his 
servants the things which must shortly 
be done. 

Ibid. v. 16. T Jesus have sent mine angel 
to testify unto you these things in the 
churches. 

The angel that appeared to St. John was the an- 
gel of the Lord God, and the Lord God sent him : but 
he was the angel of Jesus, and Jesus sent him ; there- 
ore, Jesus is the Lord God of the holy prophets* 

VI. 

Luke i. 76- And thou child shalt be called 
the prophet of the highest, for thou 
shalt go before the face of the Lord to 

PREPARE HIS WAYS. 

Matth. xi. 10, Behold I send my messen- 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, 



4S 



ger BEFORE THY FACE TO PREPARE THY 

way before thee. 

John the Baptist goes before the face of the Lord, 
that is, of the highest, whose prophet he is, to prepare 
his way. But he was sent as a messenger before the 
face of Christ, to prepare his way ; who, therefore is 
the Lord and the highest. 

VII. 

The two following texts are but a repetition of the 
same argument : but as they speak of Christ under a 
different name, they ought to have a place for them- 
selves. 

Luke i. 16, 17. And many of the children 
of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their 
God : and he shall go before hiai. 

Matth. iii. 11. He that cometh after me is 
mightier than I, &c. 

Here again, the Baptist is said to go before the 
Lord God of the children of Israel : but it is certain, 
he went before Jesus Christ, the only person who is 
said to come after him : therefore, Jesus Christ is the 
Lord God of the children of Israel. And the same title 
is given him in the prophet Hosea — I will have mercy 
upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the 
Lord their God : which can be no other than the voice 
of God the Father, promising salvation by the person 
of God the Son. 



** THE DIVINITY OP CHRIST 

VIII. 

Matth. xi. 10. Behold I send my messen- 
ger before thy face, to prepare thy way 
before thee. 

Mai. iii. 1. Behold I send my messenger to 
prepare the way before me. 

As this prophesy is worded by St. Matthew, (as also 
by St. Mark* and St. Lztkc h ) there is a personal distinc- 
tion between him who soids his messenger, and Christ 
before whom the messenger is sent — I send my messen- 
ger — to prepare thy way before THEE. But the pro- 
phet himself has it thus — J send my messenger, to pre- 
pare the way before me. Yet the evangelist and the 
prophet are both equally correct and true. For though 
Christ be a different person, yet he is one and the same 
God with the Father. And hence it is, that with the 
evangelist, the persons are not confounded; with the 
prophet the godhead is not divided. This argument, 
may serve to justify an excellent observation of our 
church in the homily upon the resurrection — " How 
dare we be so bold to renounce the presence of the 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost ? for where one is, there is 
God all whole in majesty, together with all his power, 
wisdom, and goodness." 

IX. 

Psalm lxxviii. 56. They tempted and pro 
voked the most high God. 

a Mark i. 2, b Luke vii, 27 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. *6 

1 Cor. x, 9. Neither let us tempt Christ 
as some of them also tempted. 

These texts do both relate to the same rebellious 
acts of the Israelites in the wilderness. In the former 
of them, the person they tempted is called the most 
high God: in the latter he is called Christ : therefore, 
Christ is the most high God. 

X. 

John iii. 29. He that hath the bride, is the 
bridegroom*— (meaning Christ.) 

But, according to the prophet, 

Isa. liv. 5. Thy maker is thine husband. 
the Lord of hosts is his name. 

* Another title of eminence, that shews Christ to be upon an equal- 
ity with God the Father, is to be collected from the following scriptures. 
Psalm xxiii. 1. The Lord (Heb. Jehovah) is my shepherd. 
John x. 16. There shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 
If Christ be not the Lord, in unity with the Father, there must of 
course be two distinct beings, to whom the scripture has appropriated 
this character of a shepherd ; and that would make two shepherds. But 
Christ has affirmed there is but one shepherd, that is himself, THE 
SHEPHERD of the sheep, v. 2. whom St. Peter calls the chief shep- 
herd, 1 Pet. v. 4. So again — 

Psalm c. 3.. Know ye that the Lord he is God— -we are his peo- 
ple and the sheep of his pasture. 
John x. 3. He (that is Christ himself) calleth his own sheep. 
And again— John xxi. 16. Feed my sheep— said Christ to St Peter : 
which in the language of St Peter himself, 1 Pet. v. 2. ifr— Feed the 
3ock of God. 



46 THE DIVLMTY OF CHRIST. 

And the church, which is the bride of Christ, can no 
more have two distinct husbands, than Christ can have 
two distinct churches. As the church is the bride, the 
body, the building of God; and as there is one bride, 
one body, one building; so is there, on the other hand. 
one God, who is the husband or bridegroom ; owe Christ, 
who is the head; one God with the Lamb, who is the 
tight of it. Compare also, Jer. iii. 1. and 31, 32. Ezek. 
wi. Hos. ii. Matth. ix. 15.— xxv. 1. 2 Cor. ii. 2. 
Eph. v. 23. Rev. xix. 7. and xxi. 2, 9. 

XI. 

Here follow some single texts, to which I add no 
parallels ; there being no danger of mistaking their 
application. 

John xx. 28. And Thomas answered and 
said, my Lord and my God. 

XII. 

Horn. ix. 5. Of whom as concerning the 
flesh Christ came, who is over all, God 
blessed for ever. Amen. 

XIII. 

2 Pet. i. ii Through the righteousness of 
our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. 



SB 



The Greek is — m ©*# jj^ta/v ^ 2&>t^^ Ivm Xpi$v 
-the very same, as to the order and grammar of the 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. $7 

words, with the last verse of this epistle — rs Kvptx 
v/ttfitv, 9$ ?,6)Typ(§» lym XpiG-x — which is thus rendered 
in our English version — of our Lord and Saviour Je- 
sus Christ. And so, without doubt, it should be in 
the other passage, there being no possible reason why, 
tx Ben yftw, should not signify our God, as well as 
tv Kvfua nftav, our Lord. It is not my design to cast 
any reflection upon the wisdom of our excellent and 
orthodox translators (whose version, taken altogether, 
is without exception the best extant in the world) or 
to advance this as any discovery of my own : for the 
translators themselves have preserved the true rend- 
ering in the margin ; declaring it, by their customary 
note, to be the literal sense of the Greek. 

There is another expression, Tit. ii. 13. that ought 
to be classed with the foregoing. Looking for that 
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing, m ^yecXa Bsa 
s£ S»r^^ i)pM l?jc-# Xpt$8, of our great God and Sav- 
iour Jesus Christ. Of which a great man, deep in 
the Arian scheme, gives this desponding account — - 
iS Many understand this whole sentence to belong to 
one and the same person, viz. Christ : as if the words 
should have been rendered, the appearing of our great 
God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Which construction the 
words will indeed bear; as do also those in 2 Pet. i. 1, 
But it is much more reasonable and more agreeable to 
the whole tenor of scripture to understand the^ former 
part of the words to relate to the Father." 3, As for 
the whole tenor of the scripture, it is a weighty phrase, 
hut very easily made use of in any cause good or bad 

a Clarke's Doct of the Trinity, C. %$% 54L 



^8 XHE DIVINITY OP CHRIST, 

so I shall leave the reader to judge of that, after it has 
been exhibited to him in the following pages. And 
as for the reasonableness of the thing itself, let any se- 
rious person consider, whether the doctrine of the 
scripture is not more rational under the orthodox 
application of these words, than under that of this 
author. For to allow, as he does, that Christ is God, 
but not the great God, is to make two Gods, a greater 
and a lesser, which is no very rational principle. And 
I make not the least doubt, but this author, had he 
been dressing up a system of natural religion, would 
have protested against a notion so absurd and impious, 
But when the scripture was to be dealt with, he chose 
it as the lesser of two evils, the greater of which, was 
the doctrine he had subscribed to. 

XIV. 

% Cor. v. 19. God was in Christ, recon- 
ciling the World to himself. 

It is allowed on all hands, that the world was recon- 
ciled by Christ Jesus to the one, only, great, and su- 
preme God. But, this very same God (for the word is 
but once used in the whole sentence) was in Christ; 
manifest in the flesh, and reconciling the world to 
himself. And were there no other passage of scrip- 
ture to be found, this alone is sufficient to overthrow 
the whole doctrine of Arianism ; which, as far as the 
scripture is concerned, depends upon this one asser- 
tion—that " the word of GOD, in scripture, NEVER 
signifies a complex notion of more persons than one . 



I HE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 49 

but ALWAYS means one person only, viz. either the 
person of the Father singly, or the person of the Sen 
singly." a Which is absolutely false ; for here it sig- 
nifies both. The text considers God as agent and pa~ 
trent at the same time, and upon the same occasion ; 
as the reconciler of the world, in the person of the Son ; 
and the object to whom the reconciliation was made, 
in the person of the Father ; yet there is but one word 
(God) to express them both. So that the word God, 
though of the singular number, is of a plural compre- 
hension. And thus I find it to have been taken by 
some of the most eminent writers before the council 
of Nice, " Plasmatus in initio homo permanus DEI, id 
est, FILII <& SPIRITUS," says Irenceus * putting 
the singular name of God, for the two persons of the 
Son and Spirit. And the same word, in the language 
of Origen (if we are allowed to take the version of 
Ruffinus as genuine) includes the whole three persons 
—Igitur de DEO idestde PATRE & FILIO & SPI- 
RIT U sancto. c And our excellent church has used 
the word God in the same comprehensive sense; as in 
the blessing after the communion service — GOD 
ALMIGHTY, the Father, the So?i, and the Holy Ghost. 

XV. 

John xiv. 11. I am in the Father, and the 
Father in me. 

Compare this with the foregoing article. 

4| Clarke's S. D. P. II. { 33. c DeprmcipiiS. Li'o IV. I 

b Lib. V. 5 23. 

E 



50 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 

XVI. 

1 Cor. v. SO. We are embassadors for 
Christ, as though God did beseech your 
by us. We pray you in Christ's stead 
be ye reconciled to God. 

The usefulness of this text to our present subject, 
lies in these words — ■" In Christ's stead we pray> as 
though " God did beseech" — where the interchanging 
of the names God and Christy shews the same person 
to be entitled to both. 

XVII. 

1 John v. SO. We are in him that is true, 
even in his Son Jesus Christ : this is 
the true God and eternal life. 

XVIII. 

Col. ii. 8, 9. Beware lest any man spoil 
you through philosophy and vain deceit, 
after the tradition of men, after the rudi- 
ments of the world, and not after Christ : 
for in him dwelleth all the fulness 

OF THE GODHEAD BODILY. 

The apostle foresaw, that a thing calling itself phi- 
losophy would set all its engines at work to destroy 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 5.1 

the notion of Christ's true and absolute divinity— 
" For in him (says he) dwelleth all the fulness of the 
godhead bodily, philosophy will dispute this : and un- 
dertake to demonstrate the contrary. But if you list- 
en to such vain deceit, it will overthrow your faith, 
and spoil you for a disciple of Jesus Christ ; therefore 
— beware" 

XIX. 

John i. 1. The word was God, 

XX. 

Isa. ix. 6. For unto us a child is born, unto 
us a son is given, and the government shall 
be upon his shoulder : and his name shall 
be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the 
mighty God, the everlasting father, 

XXI. 

Jer. xxiii. 6. This is the name whereby he 
shall be called, the Lord (Jehovah) our 
righteousness. 

XXII. 

Isa. ii. 17> 18. The Lord alone shall be 
exalted in that day : and the idols be 
shall utterly abolish. 



52 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 

"Idolatry is the reverse, and direct opposite i& 
Christianity (or, the day of Christ) To destroy this, 
was the great end of Chrisfs corning into the world. 
But except he were God, the very and eternal God, of 
one substance with the Father, his religion would be so 
far from destroying idolatry, that it would only be a 
more refined and dangerous species of it. The prophet 
therefore, concludes all, that so he might acquit the 
worship of Christ from all the charge of idolatry, with 
this positive assertion ; that it would prove the most 
effectual means of putting an end to all false and idola- 
trous worship: the idols he shall utterly abolish. The like 
conclusion we meet with in the apostle St. John; who 
having affirmed that Jesus Christ is the true God and 
eternal life, immediately subjoins and closes all with this 
advice — little children keep yourselves from IDOLS." 

This remark is taken from the first volume of an 
Essay upon the Proper Lessons ; written as I am told, 
by a gentleman of the laity. There needs no apolo- 
gy for setting it down ; it being of good use in the sub- 
ject I am upon. And it also gives me an occasion of 
returning thanks to the pioii3 and learned author of 
that excellent work, not for myself only, but for many 
sincere friends to the religion of Christ and the church 
of England, among whom his labors are not without 
their fruit; and I am confident they will not be without 
their reward: but the author must be content to wait 
for it, till Wisdom shall be justified of all her children, 

XXIII. 

Rev. i. 8. I am alpha and omega, the be- 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. #8 

ginning and the ending, saith the Lord, 
which is, and which was, and which is to 
come, the Almighty. 

If the reader will be pleased to examine the 13th 
and 17th verses of this chapter, it will appear that this 
8th verse was undoubtedly spoken from the mouth of 
Christ: who therefore has a just title to every name 
and attribute expressed in it ; and among the rest to 
that of the Almighty. 

Origen, who certainly was no Avian, though often 
represented as such, by some who would be pleased 
to have the vote of so celebrated a genius, has the 
following observation— " Now that you may know 
the omnipotence of the Father and the Son to be one 
and the same as HE is ONE and the SAME GOD 
and LORD with the FATHER, hear what St. John 
had said in the Revelation — These things, saith the 
Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the 
Almighty"'' For who is the Almighty that is to come, 
but Christ?* 

XXIV- 

The texts that follow, with this mark, (f) prefixed 
to them, are such as have been abused by the Avians 
to support their heresy : and to the best of my know - 

a Ut autem unam & eradem ornnipoteniiam Patris & Filii esw 
noscas sicut unus atque idem est cum Patre Dens & Dominus, audi hoo 
modo Joan, in Apocalypsi dicentem : Hac diclt Deir.vius Deus qui c>J, 
if jui t il, of qui venturus est omnipotens. Qui enim venturus el 
potens, quig est alius nisi Chri$tus?—De principiis Lib. I C. 2. 

E 2 



54 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, 

ledge, there are some of every sort. But when the 
scripture is brought to declare its own sense of them, 
they will either appear to be nothing to the purpose, 
or confirm and preach the faith they have been sup- 
posed to destroy, 

f Matth. xix. 17. Why callest thou me 
good ? there is none good but one, that 
is, God, 

The objection is founded upon the Greek, which 
runs thus — Ovhi$ e?tv ocyoc&^ et py ei$, o ©*©-. There 
is none good but etg, one; and that (one) is, 6 0e©-, 
God. Whence it is argued, that the adjective e 1$ being 
in the masculine gender, cannot be interpreted to sig- 
nify one being or nature (for then it should have been 
EN, in the neuter) but one person : so that by confining 
the attribute of goodness to the single person of the 
Father, it must of course exclude the persons of the 
Son and Holy Ghost from the unity of the godhead. 

To say the truth, I think this is the most plausible 
objection I have ever met with ; and I have sincerely 
endeavored to do it justice. If it is capable of being 
set, in a stronger light, any man is welcome to add 
what he pleases to it. For supposing the word en; 
to signify one person (and in that lies the whole force 
of the argument) then if one person only is good, and 
that person is God ; it must also follow that there is 
but one person who is God : the name of God being as 
much confined hereby to a single person, as the attribute 
of goodness* But this is utterly false; the names of 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, 



5% 



God, Lord, Lord of hosts, the Almighty, Most High, 
Eternal, God of Israel, &c. being also acribed to the 
second and third persons of the blessed trinity. Take 
it this way therefore, and the objection by proving 
too much, confutes itself, and proves nothing. 

The truth is, this criticism, upon the strength 01 
which some have dared to undeify their Saviour, has 
no foundation in the original. The word e/s is so fay 
from requiring the substantive person to be understood 
with it, that it is put in the masculine gender to agree 
with its substantive Oe(&, and is best construed by an 
adverb. If you follow the Greek by a literal trans- 
lation, it will be thus — There is none good — « ^ et$ 
o €>e&» — but the one God; that is, in common English 
but God only. And it happens that the same Greek, 
word for word, occurs in Mark ii. 7. — Who can forgive 
sins — et fJLti «$ o <&£<&> — but God only : so it is rendered 
by our translators : and we have a plain matter of fact, 
that et$ in this place cannot possibly admit the sense 
of one person, because Christ, who is another person, 
took upon him to forgive sins. In the parallel place 
of St. Luke's gospel, a the expression is varied, so as to 
make it still clearer — h pM /^v®- o ©* ©- — not «§ but 
p.ov& another adjective of the masculine gender; which, 
though it agree with its substantive ©£©-, is rightly 
construed an adverb — either the alone God, or God 
only. And the Greek itself uses one for the other 
indifferently — as, eir* *gra) ftova), by bread onlyb — gy Aa- 
yct> ftovov, in word only. c The utmost that can be gath- 
ered, therefore, from these words, is no more than this, 

a Luke v. 21, b Mattb, iv, 4. c 1 Thess. i. 5, 



36 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, 

that there is one God, (in which we are all agreed) 
and that there is none good beside him ; which no body 
will dispute. Whether in this God there be one per- 
son, or three, remains yet to be considered : and the 
scripture is so express in other places, as to settle it 
beyond all dispute. 

If it should here be asked, for what reason Christ 
put this question — " Why callest thou me good?" I 
answer ; for the same reason that he asked the Phari- 
sees, why David in spirit called him LORD ; a and that 
was, to try if they were able to account for it. This 
ruler, by addressing our Saviour under the name of 
good master, when the inspired psalmist had affirmed 
long before, that there is none that doeth GOOD, no 
NOT ONE j b did in effect allow him to be God; no 
mere man, since the fall of Adam, having any claim 
to that character. And when he was called upon to 
explain his meaning, for that God only was good: he 
should have replied in the words of St. Thomas — " My 
Lord, and my GOD;" which would have been a no- 
bler instance of faith, and have cleared up the whole 
difficulty. If the case be considered, this man was a 
very proper subject for such a trial. Fully convinced 
of his own sufficiency, he comes to Christ in the pre- 
sence of his disciples, to know what good thing he 
might do to merit everlasting life. Whence our Sav- 
iour takes occasion to correct his mistake as to the 
nature of goodness ; and having tried this goo d and 
perfect man in a tender point, sent him away griev- 
ously dissatisfied. 

a Mattb. xsii. 43. b Psalm xiv; & 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, 



XXV. 



57 



f i Cor. xv. 24. Then coineth the end, 
when he shall deliver up the kingdom to 
God even the Father. 

Luke 1. 53. He (Jesus) shall reign over 
the house of Jacob for ever ; and of his 
kingdom there shall be no end. 

This of St Luke, being a contradiction in terms to 
that of the apostle, shews the former to be spoken only 
of Christ's humanity ; as the latter relates only to his 
divinity. When both are laid together, it is evident 
to a demonstration, that Christ is perfect God, as well 
as perfect man. As man, he received a kingdom, which 
again, as man, he shall deliver up, when his mediato- 
rial office, for which he took the nature of man, shall 
be at an end. But there is a kingdom pertaining to 
him, which shall have no end. And this cannot be 
true, unless he is a person in that God, who after the 
humanity has delivered up the kingdom shall be all in 
all. The distinction in this case between the God 
and man in the joint person of Christ Jesus is warrant- 
ed by another part of the chapter, wherein the apos- 
tle has given us a key to his own meaning. Since by 
MAN (says he) came death, by MAN came also the 
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so 
in Christ shall all be made alive. Here, it is evident, 
he is drawing a contrast between the man Adam and 
the man Christ ; so that unless it be done on purpose, 



58 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 

no reader can easily mistake the meaning of what fol- 
lows. — Then cometh the end, when HE (that is the man 
Christ, the second Adam) shall deliver up tlie kingdom, 
&c. for so it must be, according to the tenor of the apos- 
tle's discourse. 

The New Testament abounds with expressions of 
this nature ; but they have no difficulty in them, if it 
only be remembered that Christ is man as well as God; 
which the Avians are willing upon all occasions to 
forget. And it has been chiefly owing' to an abuse 
of these texts that they have been able to put any tol- 
erable gloss upon their heresy. The Old Testament 
seldom speaking of Christ, but as a person of the god- 
head before his incarnation, does not afford them 
so many opportunities : and hence it is, that most of 
them confine their inquiries to the new, which is the 
history of him after his incarnation, when he appear- 
ed as the first-born of many brethren,a anointed above 
his fellows (mankind) receiving authority and domin- 
ion from God, who by a power superior to th:. t of his 
human soul and body, put all things in subjection un- 
der the feet of it. 

But some, for whose sakes he thus humbled him- 
self, and became obedient in the flesh, instead of re- 
ceiving it with humility and devotion, even cast it in 
his teeth, and make it an argument against him : vain- 
ly imagining that they do honor to their supreme God, 
while they say with Peter— Lord, be it far from thee : 
Ms shall not, it cannot be unto thee. And it is worth 
their while to consider, whether they may not fall 

a Rom. rm, 29. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 50 

under the same rebuke, when it will be too late to 
retract and change their opinion. 

A solemn advocate of theirs, whom I take to be a 
dissenter, tells us — -his present concern is with the New 
Testament only. 3 ' And another writer of some figure, 
who, you are to suppose, is addressing himself to a 
young clergyman, puts it into his head, that he " may 
reject arguments brought from the Old Testament to 
prove the trinity as trifling, and proving nothing but 
the ignorance of those that make use of them " h And 
I could wish that were all : for I had much rather be 
accounted a fool in their judgment, than find myself 
under a necessity of charging them with the horrible 
guilt, of denying the Lord that hath bought them. 

XXVL 

f Acts x, 42. That it is he, which is or- 
dained of God to be the judge of quick 
and dead. 

This passage will help us to detect, once for all, 
that common fallacy of our adversaries, in misapply- 
ing such words as relate only to the human nature of 
Christ, and erecting arguments thereupon to the de- 
grading of his supreme essence. Christ is' ordained of 
God, it is true : and the nature that receives power, 
must be inferior to the nature that confers it. But is 
his godhead therefore ordained? They tell you it is ; 

a A Sequel to the Essay on Spirit, p. 8. 

b Letter to a young clergyman upon the difficulties and discourage 
ments which attend the study of the scriptures in the way of private 
judgment 



®0 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, 

and their scheme requires it : but the scriptures declare 
the contrary— GOD (saithStt. Paul) hath appointed a 
day wherein HE will JUDGE the morld in rigtecou- 
ness by that MAN e» *vJ>^ (IN that MAN) whom he 
hath ORDAINED.* The supreme God that was 
manifest in the flesh, and IN Christ reconciling the world 
to HIMSELF, shall remain in the same personal un- 
ion with him, till he hdiS judged the world, and is rea- 
dy to deliver up the kingdom. And though our judge 
shall even then retain the character of a man, yet as 
God who ordained him, shall be present with him in 
the same person, the act of the last judgment is equally 
ascribed to both natures. In the text just above cit- 
ed, it is said — He (God) will judge the world, though it 
immediately follows, that a man, even the man Christ, 
is ordained to this office. And so we have it again in 
the epistle to the Romans — we shall all appear before 
the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live 
saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to ME, and every 
tongue shall confess unto GOD. b We are to give an 
account of ourselves at the judgment seat of Christ, 
And how does the apostle prove it? Why, because it 
is written that we shall give an account of ourselves 
to the Lord God, who swears that he liveth. But un- 
less Christ, who is a man, be also this living God and 
Lord, this proof is not to the purpose. 

xxvn. 

f Acts x. 40. Him God raised up, and 
shewed him openly to us who did eat 

a Acts xvii. 31 « b Isa. xlv, 23. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 6i 

and drink with him after he rose from the 
dead. 
John xxi. 1. After these things Jesus 
shewed himself again to his disciples 
at the sea of Tiberias ; and on this wise 

SHEWED HE HIMSELF, 

The former text takes something from Christ, as 
man ; in which capacity he was at the disposal of the 
Fatlier. But the latter restores it to him again as 
God j under which character he is at his own disposed^ 
and in unity with the Father. The same is to be 
said of the two articles which follow* 

XXVIIL 

f John iii. 16. God so loved the world ; 

that he gave his only begotten Son. 
Eph. v. 25. CHRiST^also loved the church* 

and gave himself for it. 

XXIX. 

f Eph. iv. 33. Forgiving one another^ even 
as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiv- 
en you. 

Col. iii. 13. Forgiving one another — even 

i as Christ eorgave you. 



6s 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 



XXX. 



t John vi. 38. I came down from heaven, 

NOT to do MY OWN WILL, but the WILL of 
HIM that SENT ME. 

Matth. viii. 2> And behold there came a 
leper and tvorshipped him, saying, Lord 
if thou wilt thou canst make me clean. 
And Jesus said, (<=>**") I will, be thou 
clean. 

XXXI. 

f Acts xiv. 29, 30. And now, Lord 

grant — that signs and wonders may be 
done by the name of thy holy child Je- 
sus. 

It seems here, that signs and wonders were not to 
be wrought by Jesus Christ, as the author of them ; 
but by an higher power of the LORD, put into action 
by the name, merits, or intercession of the holy child 
Jesus. Yet St Peter makes this same Jesus, though 
in heaven, the immediate author of the signs and won- 
ders wrought by his disciples upon earth. " Eneas 
(says he) JESUS CHRIST maketh thee whoUr 
Acts ix, 34 



THE D1VIINITY OF CHRIST. 



XXXXI. 



63 



I Matth. xx. 23. To sit on my right hand 
and on my left, is not mine to give, but 
fit. shall be given) to them for whom it is 
prepared of my father. 

Yet our blessed Saviour has promised elsewhere, 
io bestow this reward in his own right — " To hmi that 
overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne." 
Rev. iii. 21. This is sufficient to rescue the text from 
any heretical use that may have been made of it. 
But still there remains some difficulty, which with 
God's help, I shall endeavor to clear up. It will ap- 
pear to any person, not ignorant of Greek? that the 
original in this place does reserve to Christ that act 
of power and authority, of which the English version, 
by inserting a few words, seems to have divested him. 
The Greek is this- — s» srtv epov S'ovtxt- — it is not mine 
id give ■, u A a' ots qT6i[JLcircc,i, but to them for whom it is pre- 
pared — " nisi quibus paratum est." For in the ele- 
venth verse of the foregoing chapter, there is an ex- 
pression exactly parallel — #aa' cic, feforoit — save they 
to whom it is given ; or as Eeza hath it — " sed ii quibus 
datum." Now there can be no grammatical reason 
why we should not take — ccX?C oi$ yrtipMrxi — in the 
same manner, and then the text will affirm what it 
now seems to deny. For to say, that Christ cannot 
give any particular reward, save to them for whom ii is 
prepared of his Father, is the same as to say, that to 



64 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 

such he can and will give it ; according to the common 
maxim — Exccptio probat regulam in non-exceptis. 

The scope of the text therefore, is to shew, that 
nothing can be granted even by almighty power itself, 
where there is not a suitable merit or disposition in 
tfie persons who claim it. " God shall give this ho- 
norable place to those, for whom it is prepared by an 
invariable rule of justice; whose victory of faith being 
foreknown and accepted, a seat is allotted them ac- 
cording to it." And the two passages being laid to- 
gether, supply us with this principle. As if our Sav- 
iour, who is the speaker in both places, had said — 
• Though it be not mine to give ; yet to him that over- 
cmneih, will I (even I myself) grant to sit with me in 
my throne ; because for him this seat is prepared" It 
is not owing to a defect of power in the trinity, or in 
any person of it, that the divine purpose cannot be 
changed ; but because it is impossible for the power of 
God to break in upon the order of his distributive 
justice. And it is upon this account only, that we 
read of Christ, Mark vi. 5. "He COULD there do 
NO mighty work.'''' For the power of doing a miracle 
was always present with him ; but the place being 
improper ) because of their unbelief, made the thing im- 
possible. In the same manner, that declaration of 
the Lord in Gen. xvii. 22. is to be accounted for, — 
Haste thee, escape thither, for I CANNOT do any 
thing till thou be come thither. No man would hence 
conclude that the hand of God is straightened, or his 
power limited ; but only that he does, and by his own 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRI8T. 0§ 

nature must act agreeable to the disposition of things 
and persons, known to himself. 

XXXIXL 

• 1 Cor. viii. 6. To us there is but one 
God, the Father. 

If we compare this with that expression of St Tho- 
mas.— John xx. 28— MY LORD, and MY GOD, we 
have the following argument : 

To us there is but one God, the Father. 

But to us Jesus Christ is God : therefore, the 
gospel has either preached two Gods to us, one distinct 
from the other : or that one God the Father is here the 
name of a nature, under which Christ himself, as God, 
is also comprehended. And the same may be prov- 
ed of it in several other places. 

XXXIV. 

f Matth. xxiii. 9* Call no man your Fa- 
ther upon earth, for one is your Father, 
which is in heaven* 

Ibid. v. 10. Neither be ye called masters, 
for one is your master, even Christ. 
Johniii. 13. which is in heaven. 

Dr. Clarke has a particular section,* wherein he 
pretends to have set down the passages that ascribe the 

a Chap. ii. J. 3. 
P 2 



bft THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, 

/ugliest titles, perfections, and powers, to the second 
person of the trinity. Yet he has wholly omitted the 
latter of these verses ; though by a rule of his owe 
making, it allows to Christ an higher title than any 
other in the whole scripture. It is this same author 
who has laid so great a stress upon the word st$, one, 
which he has insisted upon it can signify nothing else 
but one person ; and the criticism is thought to be of 
such use and importance to his scheme, that his book 
begins with it ; and in the course of his work it is re- 
peated three times, nearly in the same words. But 
the passage now before us, if he had produced it; 
would have turned his own weapon against himself. 
For the word et$ is here an attribute of Christ; and 
if we argue from it in this place, as he has done in the 
other, it must prove that one person only is our master, 
and that this person is Christ : which excludes the 
persons of the Father and the Spirit from the honor of 
that title ; and so reduces that learned author's reason- 
ing to a manifest absurdity. 

We are to conclude then, that as the phrase, one mas- 
ter cannot be meant to exclude the Father ; so neither 
does that other — one is good (supposing that were the 
sense of the Greek) or, one is your Father, exclude the 
person of Christ. And if the reason of the thing 
teaches us that it cannot, so the scripture assures us 
in fact that it does not : the title of Father, being also 
ascribed to the second person of the trinity. For 
Christ, the alpha and omega, says of himself — He that 
over comeih shall i?iherit all things, and I will be HIS 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 6? 

GOD, and he shall be MY SON. a Isaiah calls him 
— The everlasting FATHERS And again it is writ- 
ten— They are the CHILDREN of GOD, being the 
children of the RESURRECTION : c but, says Christ 
—lam the RESURRECTION : d therefore he is God. 
and hath us for his children. If this be the case, the 
word Father cannot always be a name that distin^ 
guishes God from another person of God: but is often 
to be understood as a term of relation between God 
and man : or as a modern divine of our church has 
well expressed it — •" A word not intended for God the 
Father only, the first person of the trinity ; but as it is 
referred unto the creature made and conserved by God; 
in which sense it appertains to the whole trinity" 

XXXV. 

f John xiv. 88. My Father is greater 
than I. 

The two preceding articles will sufficiently justify 
what the church has asserted with a view to this pas- 
sage — That Christ is " inferior to the Father as touch- 
<f ing his manhood." And the stream of the whole 
scripture is against that use the Arians generally make 
of it ; who stand in need to be reminded at every 
turn, that in the person of Christ, there is a human soul 
and body, the nature of a man, which as it cannot lay 
claim to what is spoken of Christ in unity with the Fa- 
ther, so must it receive to its own account whatever 

a Rer, xxi, 7. b ix, 6, c Luke XX: 36, d John xi, 25. 



68 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, 

seems to degrade and disjoin Mm from the Father. It 
is indeed hard to say, which of the two heresies is the 
most unreasonable and unseriptural ; that of the Soci- 
nians, which never considers Christ as any thing but 
a mere man ; or that of the Arians, who never look 
upon him as any thing but a suppositious God. Be- 
tween these two gross errors, lies the true catholic 
faith ; which as it allows him to be perfect God and 
perfect man, is never offended, or put to its shifts, by 
any thing the scripture may have said about him in 
either capacity. 

XXXVI. 

f 1 Cor. xi. 3. The head of Christ is 
God. 

• The name Christ does here stand, as in other pla- 
ces out of number, for the man Christ; otherwise it 
must follow, that as Christ is God, God is the head of 
himself; which is a contradiction ; or that one God is 
the headoi another God; which also is a contradiction* 
This Text is capable of a good illustration from 
Gen. iii. 15. where we read, that the heel of the pro- 
mised seed should be bruised : by which, the Church 
has always understood the sufferings of his human na- 
ture, metaphorically represented by the inferior part 
in man. So in this place, his divinity or superior na- 
ture is as aptly signified by the head or superior part of 
the human body. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. W 

XXXVIL 

t Mark xiii. 3S. But of that day and hour 
knoweth no man, no not the angels which 
are in heaven, neither the Son, but the 
Father. 

It is declared of Christ in another place, that he 
increased in wisdom:* why should it be incredible 
then, that during the whole term of his humiliation 
in the flesh, something should still be left, which as 
man upon earth he did not know ? If you suppose 
him to be ignorant of this matter as God, how is it 
that St. Peter confesses him to be omniscient, without 
receiving any rebuke for it, or being reminded of any 

particular exception? LORD, thou knowest ALL 

THINGS. b 

XXXVIII. 

f John i. 18. No man hath seen God at any 

time. 
Ibid. xiv. 8, 9. Philip saith unto him, Lord 

shew us the Father — hast thou not 

seen me, Philip ? he that hath seen me 

hath seen the Father. 

* Lake ii, 52. b JohB xxi. 17. 



7® THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 

* These words (says Dr. Clarke) do not signify, 
that he who hath seen the person of Christ hath seen 
the person of the Father." No surely; but that he who 
hath seen all that was visible of Christ, hath seen the 
person, to whom was joined that invisible and divine 
nature, which the scripture has called by the name 
of the Father. And to shew that Christ (though he 
was God manifest in the fleshy is yet no other than 
the same invisible God, whom no man hath or can see 
and live, we are told, that " when he shall appear (glo- 
rified, not with any secondary divinity, but with the 
FATHER'S OWNSELFb) we shall be like him 
(fashioned like unto his own glorious body? and con- 
formed to his image ) A for we shall SEE him AS HE 
IS;" which no man ever yet hath done. 

XXXIX. 

f 1 Cor. xv. &7- But when he saith all things 
are put under him, it is manifest that he is 

EXCEPTED (€JtT0? T* \)7TQT<xt;<ZVTQs) which did 

put all things under him. And when all 
things shall be subdued (wot^) unto 
him — 
Phil.iii. 20, 21. We look for the Saviour, 
the Lord Jesus Christ — who — is able 
even to subdue all things (v7roT<*%oti r& 
vrocvrx) to himself. 

a 1 Tim. iii. 16. b John xvii, 5. c Phil, iii. 21, d Rom, viii 2& 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 71 

It is manifest, therefore, that the exception in the for- 
mer text, is not meant to set one person of God above 
another person of God; but only to distinguish the pow- 
er of the divine nature from that of the human in its 
greatest exaltation. As Christ is man, all things are 
subduedunto him by another; as Christ is God, he him- 
self is that other, and able to subdue all things to HIM- 
SELF. And this will be sufficient to confirm the 
reader in what I have already observed, that the 
cause of Arianism borrows its chief support from the 
humiliation of Christ in the flesh. Search the very 
best of their arguments to the bottom, by a diligent 
comparing of the scripture with itself, and they all 
amount to this great absurdity. — Man is inferior to 
God; therefore God is inferior to himself-: and this 
they prove, by imputing to Christ's divinity what is 
said only of his humanity. 

I have now presented to the reader's consideration 
the most noted texts, which, under the management 
of Arian or Socinian expositors, may seem to have 
favored their doctrine. Many, I hope, will be of opin- 
ion, that the catholic cause is rather beholden to 
them, particularly in this last instance, for the oppo- 
sition they have made against it ; inasmuch as the ob- 
jections they have drawn from the holy scriptures 
have directed us to some very clear proofs, which might 
otherwise have escaped our notice. If there be any 
other texts more for their purpose than what I have 
here set down, they have my free consent to produce 
and enlarge upon them as much as they please. In 
the mean time I shall proceed to give the reader some 



72 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 



farther satisfaction, and endeavour to convince him, 
with the blessing of God, that while heresy is obliged 
to glean up a few scattered passages, hard to be un- 
derstood, and for that reason, easy to be wrested by- 
men of perverse inclinations : the faith of the church 
has the suffrage of the whole Bible, speaking in such 
words, as need not be refined upon by any metaphy- 
sical expositions, but only applied and considered. 

XL. 

Jude 4. Denying the only Lord God, and 
our Lord Jesus Christ — tov jtwvov focm- 

TtjV S-ZQV KOU KVflQV yjfAM lqfQVV XpJfOV. 

As there is no article before Kvpiov the first and se- 
cond comma are both meant of the same person ; and 
the plain sense, when freed from the ambiguity of the 
English version, is this — Denying the only Lord God 
and our Lord, Jesus Christ. This literal sense of the 
Greek may be supported by the parallel Greek of 
Phil. iv. 20. Tft> h $£6> pccci vrotrpt wav. There being 
here no article before -st^t/j/, it would be violent 
and unnatural, to refer B-iog to one person and zrarpi, 
to another: whence Grotius paraphrases the expres- 
sion by Deo qui IDEM est Paternoster; and thus may 
the other be rendered with equal strictness and pro- 
priety — fco-Treryv qui idem est Kvpi<^ j^av : and though 
we do not rest the proof of the trinity on any single 
passage, yet is the more natural construction of this 
text very strong and conclusive for it. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 73 

If this should be denied, I think the sense also is 
capable of demonstration. The words include this 
proposition — there is, o pov®* AEZnoTHS, one sti- 
preme governor:* now if this term be applied to 
Christ, it must follow that HE is that one supreme go- 
vernor, in the unity of the Father* But it is applied to 
him in the parallel place of 2 Pet. ii. 1. Denying 
(AEZIIOTHN) the Lord that hath bought them — w 
ayopucxvTci xvrvq. And if it should be doubted, whether 
this latter text be meant of Christ, it is demonstrated 
by another— THOU wast slain, and hast BOUGHT 
us (yyopxrccs) unto God by thy bloods If this chain 
of reasoning be inverted, the force of it will be clear 
and undeniable. 1. Christ hath bought us. 2. He 
*hat hath bought us, is AE2IIOTHZ, the Lord, or su- 
preme governor. But 3dly, there is, & ft«v®- AE2IIO 
TH£,,<meonly sii-preme governor. Therefore, Christ is 
he. 

XLL 

Jude 2% %5. Unto him that is able — to 
present you faultless before the pre- 
sence Of HIS GLORY to the ONLY WISE 

God our Saviour. 
Eph. v. 27. That he (Christ) might pre- 
sent it to himself a glorious church, 
&c. 

So Dr. Clarke has construed it. CI {. £» 411. b Rev. v, 

G 



74 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 

It is the only wise God, who is able to present us be- 
fore the presence of his glory : but Christ is to present 
Us, as members of the church m glory, to himself: there- 
fore he is the only wise God, to whom also appertains 
the presence of glory / for that is no other than his 
own presence, himself. 

This is another express Instance, that ftov©^ &£<&>, 
the only God, is not God in one person, but the unity 
of the trinity. For if you confine this phrase, with 
the Arians, to the single person of the Father, then of 
course you exclude the person of Christ, and then, it is 
manifest, you contradict the scripture. For though it 
be affirmed in this place, that the only wise God is to 
present us before his own presence, yet the same is 
elsewhere expressed by Christ presenting us to himself. 
Which is no way to be accounted for, unless you be- 
lieve Christ to be a partaker in the being, attributes, 
and offices of the one, undivided, only wise God, our 
Saviour. Then there is no farther difficulty. 

XLH. 

Eph. iii. 2, 3. The dispensation of the 
grace of God, which is given me to you- 
ward: how that ey revelation he (God) 
made known unto me the mystery. 

Gal. i. IS. I neither received it of man, 
neither was I taught it, but by the rev 
elation of Jesus Christ, 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, 75 

XLIII. 

1 Kings viii. 39. Thou, even thou only 
knowest the hearts of all the children 
of men. 

This, it seems, is the privilege of God only : but 
this God is Christ ; for, says he, 

Rev. ii. 23. All the churches shall know 
that I am he which searcheth the reins 
and hearts. 

Indeed this latter verse speaks plain enough for it- 
self without being compared with the former. It im- 
plies, that there is one only who searcheth the hearts of 
men, and that Christ is he. And the Greek will very 
well bear it ; as the learned reader will easily per- 
ceive. It is thus — tyc* itjit o epevvm — There is a £pev~ 
vm, one that searcheth; but — zya utu — lam he. 

XLIV. 

8 Pet. i. 4. Exeeeding great and precious 
promises, that by these you might be 
(9-giott koivcovoi <p\)<Tiw) partakers of the di- 
vine nature. 

Heb. iii. 14. For we are made (^sto^o* t* 
X^m) partakers of Christ, if we hold 
the beginning of our confidence (in the 



7$ THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 

precious promises of God) steadfast unto 
the end. 

What St. Peter prdpo&es, as the end of our hope in 
the promises, is to be partakers of the divine nature; 
but this, according to St. Paul, is to be partakers of 
Christ ; therefore Christ is in or of the divine nature ; 
the same almighty God* and Lord, who declared to 
Abraham — I am thy shield, and thy EXCEEDING 
GREAT REWARD.b So that these being com- 
pared together, are decisive for the catholic homoou- 
sian doctrine, at which the Arians, from the council 
of Nice to this very day, have been so grievously of- 
fended. And it has not been without reason. For , 
if the word consuhstantial be applicable to the person 
of Christ, it makes short work with their heresy. To 
this end, it was fixed upon and agreed to by the bis- 
hops of the whole Christian woiid, # as the most proper 
bar and badge of distinction between the Arians and 
themselves. But they object that the term is not 

r 

a Gen. xvii. 1. b xv. 1. 

* I say, of the whole Christian world : though a late author calls this 
Oecumenical council, summoned for the condemnation of Arius, "a fa- 
mous contest ;" as if one half of the world had been divided against the 
other. And he says, it was " determined by a majority of near twenty 
to one ;" whereas, in truth, there were bx\\five out of three hundred 
and eighteen, who denied the catholic faith. I mention this, to shew 
how some things may be represented by some sort of people, who if they 
are not ignorant must think it their interest to impose upon you. What 
would you think of a man, who having been present at an assize, should "~ 
bring a report of it home to his family, and tell them he had been at a 
famous contest, where there was a majority of near ten jury-men, six 
witnesses, and a judge against the criminal ? See Ded. to an Essay on 
Spirit, p. 9, 1Q. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 77 

scriptural ; nay, there are some of no ordinary figure 
amongst them, who have not stuck to call it an in- 
vention of pvpery ; a though it is well known, that at 
the time this was adopted by the church, there was 
no such thing as popery in the world. But the name 
is found to be of great use in amusing weak people, 
who have no ready stock of learning to contradict 
them, and, in some cases I fear, no good desire of be= 
ing better informed. Who can think it a notable 
proof of their zeal as Protestants, that they take a 
pleasure in seeing their poor mother, the Episcopal 
church of England, the honor of the reformation, and 
the dread of popery, painted and dressed up for a Jeze- 
bel, by men of her own household: who have shipwreck- 
ed their consciences by subscribing articles they ne- 
ver believed, and are growing fat upon the provision 
allotted by the providence of God, only to support the 
church in her journey through this world to the king- 
dom of heaven. A sight that would raise the indig- 
nation of a Mahometan ! and almost move a Papist 
himself to pity and pray for us ! 

But I would hope there are some few among fee 
favorers of Arianism who are not gone quite so far 
out of the way, and would be ashamed of such low 
and base artifices, as can only serve to expose and 
discredit their cause with any man of common learn- 
ing and honesty. To these I address myself: and 
now the scripture is before us, let me ask them a plain 
question or two. Is not the word essence or substance 

a Essay on Spirit, p. 151, 

G 2 



^ THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 

of the same signification with the word nature? and 
have not the fathers of the church thus expounded 
it ? and is not this phrase — of the same nature — as 
conclusive for the divinity of Christ, as that other— 
of the same substance? why then should that ex- 
pression of the Nicene creed be thought so offensive, 
when there is another in scripture so near of kin to it, 
Ihat the Arians must be sensible they could gain no- 
thing by the exchange ? For the divine nature, we all 
agree, can be but one ; three divine natures of course 
making three different Gods. But the scripture, com- 
pared as above, has asserted Christ to be of this divine 
nature. And if people were once persuaded of that, 
all farther disputes about the word consubstantial 
would be at an end. But peace and unity for Christ's 
sake, is a blessing of which God has deprived this 
church for the punishment of its sins : and as we do 
not seem to be in any posture of repentance, it is to 
be feared he will never restore it to us again in this 
world ; but suffer us to go on from bad tQ worse, till 
the measure is filled up. 

XLV. 

It is a rule, laid down by St. Paul, that GOD swears 
by HIMSELF, for this reason, because he can swear 
by NO GREATER. Heb. vi. 13. 

But Christ has sworn by himself: 

Isa. xlv. 23. I have sworn by myself— 
that unto me every knee shall bow, every 
tongue shall swear. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 79 

Which words being compared with Rom. xiv. 10, 
U. are proved to be the words of Christ.— J¥e shall 
stand before the judgment-seat of Christ : for it is writ- 
ten, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee sliall bow to 
me, and every tongue shall confess unto God. 

Christ, therefore, has sworn by HIMSELF : so that 
if the apostle's rtile be applied, he must for this reason 
be GOD, and there can be NO GREATER. 

XLVI. 

Eph, iv. 8. When he ( Christ) ascended up 
on high, he led captivity captive, and 
gave gifts unto men. 

Yet the scripture here referred to, expressly affirms 
the person who ascended, &c. to be the Lord God, 

Psalm lxviii. 17, 18. The chariots of God 
are twenty thousand, even thousands of 
angels : the Lord is among them, as in 
Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast as- 
cended on high, thou hast led captivity 
captive, &c. 

XLVIL 

Heft. ix. 20. This is the blood of the tes- 
tament which God hath enjoined unto you. 



8® THE DIVINITY OP CHRIST. 

Ibid. v. 16. Where a testament is, there 
must also of necessity be the death of 
the testator, 

God is a testator: but, argues the apostle, every tes- 
tator must die, before the last will or testament enjoined 
by him, can be offeree. Therefore, if you keep close 
to the terms, the natural conclusion is, that GOD be- 
ing a testator, should die, to make way for the execu- 
tion of his testament. But it being impossible that the 
divine nature of God should be capable of death; it 
follows, that the person who was capable of death, and 
did die as a man, was also God the testator. And it is 
to express the strict and perfect union of the two na- 
tures in the single person of Christ, that what is true 
only of one, is predicated of both. Of this, two more 
examples shall be added in the articles that immedi- 
ately follow. 

XLVIIL 

Rev. v. 9. Thou wast slain, and hast re- 
deemed us to God by thy blood. 

A distinction is here observed between the two na- 
tures of Christ : and the act of redeeming us by the 
shedding of his blood is ascribed to the lamb, the Mes- 
siah's humanity. But in another place it is imputed 
to his divinity — Feed the church of GOD, which he hath 
purchased with HIS OWN BLOOD : a not that God, 

% Acts xx» 28. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, 81 

strictly speaking, has any blood of his own to shed ; 
but that he who shed his blood for us, as man, was 
God as well as man : or, in other words, that God and 
man were united in the same person ; something being 
predicated of God, which cannot possibly be true 
without such an union. So again— 

XLIX. 

Zech. xii. 4. In that day saith the Lord 
— v. 10.— they shall look on me whom 
they have pierced. 

But, according to the evangelist St. John, this scrip- 
ture saith, 

John xix. 47. They shall look on him 
(Christ) whom they have pierced. 

As it stands in the prophet, the Lord (Jehovah) was 
to be pierced. So that unless the man Christ, who 
hung upon the cross, was also the Lord Jehovah, the 
evangelist is found to be a false witness, in applying 
to him a prophecy that could not possibly be fulfilled 
in him. 

L. 

Phil. i. 10 That ye may be sincere and 
without offence, till the day of Christ. 

2 Pet. iii. 12. Looking for and hasting to 
the coming of the day of God. 



82 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 



LI. 



Isa. xl. 10. Behold, the Lord God will 

COME— HIS REWARD IS WITH HIM. 

Rev. xxii. 12. Behold, I (Jesus) come 
quickly, and my reward is with me. 

Amen: even so come LORD JESUS. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE 

DIVINITY 

OF 

THE HOJLH GHOST* 



I. 

John iii. 6. To yeyevv^Fov EK r* Uv^\)fxctr@^ — - 
That which is born of the Spirit. 

1 John v. 4. To yvymvifmQv EK to ©gg — what- 
soever is BORN OF GrOD. 

The same individual act of divine grace, viz. that 
of our spiritual birth, is ascribed, without the change 
of a single letter, to God, and to the Spirit Some 
capacity then there must be, wherein the scripture 
makes no distinction between God and the Spirit : — 
and this is what the scripture itself calls the divine 
nature; under which God and the Spirit are both 
equally comprehended. 



84 THE DIVINITY OP THE HOLY GHOST. 

II. 

Acts. xiii. &. The Holy Ghost said, se- 
parate me Barnabas and Saul for the work 
whereunto I have called them. 

Heb. v. 4. No man taketh this honor to 
himself; but he that is called of God. 

The shorter way is to ask this same Saul, who it was 
that appointed him to the work of the ministry ? and 
his answer is no other than this — Paul CALLED to 
be an apostle, SEPARATED unto the gospel — by 
the commandiTient of GOD OUR SAVIOUR. 51 

in. 

Matth. ix. 38. Pray ye therefore the Lord 

OF THE HARVEST, that HE will SEND FORTH 

Laborers into his harvest. 
Acts xiii, 4. So they being sent forth by 
the Holy Ghost. 

In this act of sending forth laborers upon the work 
of the gospel, the Holy Ghost is proved to the Lord of 
the harvest, to whom Christ himself has directed us to 
PRAY. Wherefore, they are not to be heard, who 
advise us to alter the third petition in the litany ; a 
work, to which I am sure the Holy Ghost hath not 

a Rom. i. 1. and 1 Tim. i. 1 



THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 85 

called us, and such as will never be consented to by 
any laborers of his sending. 

IV. 

Luke ii. 16. And it was revealed unto him 
(wo*) by the Holy Ghost, that he should 
not see death, before he had seen the 
Lord's Christ. 

Ibid. v. 28. And he blessed God, and 
said, Lord now lettest thou thy servant 
depart in peace, according to thy word. 

This word was the word of the Holy Ghost ; who 
therefore is entitled to the context, and is God and 
Lord to be bkssed or praised; not under any imagin- 
ary restrictions and limitations, according to a certain 
degree of power delegated to him, an evasion you will 
meet with in some modern writers, but the scripture, 
and common reason, instructed by the scripture, dis- 
claim and abhor it, as an inlet to all sorts of idolatry \ 

V. 

John xiv. 17. He [the Spirit of truth) 
dwelleth with you and shall be in you. 

a I set down the preposition, because it slays the Jrian with his own 
weapon. It shews the prime agency and authority in this affair to have 
been that of the Holy Ghost, acting in his own right, and not as the mi- 
nister or instrument of an higher power ; for then, according to them, 
it should have been £i&. For my own part, I lay no stress upon it; 
because I perceive T upon a review of the scripture, that these two pre* 
positions are used indiscriminately. 

H 



86 THE DIVINITY OP THE HOLY GHOST. 

1 Cor. xiv. 25. God is in you of a truth. 
VI. 

3 Tim. iii. 16. All scripture is given by 

inspiration of God. 
a Pet. i. SI. Holy men of God spake as 

they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 

VII. 

John vi. 45. It is written in the prophets, 
and they shall be all taught of God. 

1 Cor. ii. 13. Not in the words which 
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the 
Holy Ghost teacheth. 

This latter verse would prove the Holy Ghost to 
foe God by itself: for I cannot find that man, in the 
style of the scripture, is ever opposed in this manner 
to any being but God only. I will subjoin a few ex- 
amples of it. 

John i. 13. Nor of the will of man, but of God. 

1 Thes. iv. 8. He therefore that despiseth, despi- 
scth not man but God. 

Rom. i. 29. Whose praise is not of men, but of 'God. 

VIII. 

Acts. v. 3. Why hath Satan filled thine 
heart to lye to the Holy Ghost. 



/ 



THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 87 

Ibid. v. 4. Thou hast not lyed unto men. 
but unto God. 

Dr. Clarke affirms, that " the person of the Holy 
Ghost is no where in scripture expressly styled 
God" And then adds by way of authority — " see the 
text, No. 66. " a And what text would you suppose 
this to be ? why, it is no other than that of Acts v. 4. 
where he IS expressly styled God. The doctor refers 
us to it, because he has added a long perplexed com- 
ment to help us to understand it, I suppose ; though a 
child may see the force of it without any comment at 
all. The substance of all he has said may be reduc- 
ed to this — " Ananias lyed to God, because he lyed 
to the apostles, in whom God dwelt by his Spirit" 
Thus has he tried to evade it ; even by producing one 
proof of the Holy GhosVs divinity, as an answer to an- 
other. For if the scripture assures us that God dweh 
leth in us, and our only argument for it, is, because 
the Spirit drvelleth in us ; who can the Spirit be, but 
God himself? as it is proved in the following article- 
But before we proceed to it, I must beg the reader to 
observe how he has used and represented Athanasius' s 
opinion upon this text. " Athanasius himself (says 
the doctor) b explains this text in the same manner ; 
he that lyed (saith he) to the Holy Ghost, lyed to <*OD y 
WHO drvelleth in men by his Spirit. For where c the 
Spirit of God is, there is GOD." The difference, 
then, between this author and St. Athanasius, is no 

a Part II. §.xxxii. b No. 66. 

c Own yx% zrt to TlVivfA*. rx 0f*, tuft er/v 3 @£OX* 



88 T HE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST, 

more than this : the former takes occasion to deny 
that the Holy Ghost is GOD, the latter to prove it, 
and both from one and the same text ; which, if you 
believe the doctor, they have explained in the sa7ne 
manner. 

IX. 

i John iii. SI. Beloved, if our heart con- 
demn us not, then have we confidence to- 
ward GrOD. 

Ibid. v. 24. And hereby we know that he 
abideth in us, by the Spirit which ha 
hath given us. 

The apostle's reasoning is this — " The Spirit abid- 
eth in us ; and hereby we know that he (God) abideth 
in us." But unless the Spirit be a person in the unity 
of God, the conclusion is manifestly false. 

X. 

.1 Cor. in. 16. The temple of God is holy, 
which temple are ye. 

1 Cor. vi. 19. Know ye not, that your bo- 
dies a,re the temple of the Holy Ghost. 

XI. 

Matt. iv. 1. Then was Jesus led up (wo) 
by the Spirit, t© be tempted, &c. 



THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 89 

Luke xL 2 — 4. Our Father which art in 
heaven — lead us not into temptation. 

It is not my business in this place to shew particu- 
larly in what manner and for what end God leads us 
into temptation. That>it is no way inconsistent with 
the divine attributes, is plain from the case now before 
us : for Jesus was led up into the wilderness to meet 
his adversary and be tempted by him. And it is also 
plain from that petition in the Lord's prayer, that our 
Father which is in heaven would not lead us into tempt- 
ation : it being needless and absurd to pray that God 
would not do, what by the necessity of his nature, it 
is impossible for him to do. In this case, God is not 
the tempter : he only introduces us to the trial ; and 
always provides, if we have the grace and prudence 
to embrace it, a way for our escaping that we may be 
able to bear it. 

But when Jesus was tempted, the leading him into 
temptation was the act of the Holy Spirit. Therefore 
as often as we repeat the Lord's prayer, we address 
ourselves inclusively to the person of the Spirit, under 
the one name of OUR FATHER,- and certainly, 
he also is our Father, of whom we are begotten and 
born, even of the Spirit : and again, as many as are 
LED by the SPIRIT of God, they are the SONS of 
God, Rom. viiL 14. See Art. I. of this chapter. 

H 2 



90 



THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



XII. 



% Cor. i. 8. Blessed be God, even the God 

Of ALL COMFORT. 

If all spiritual comfort (sent from heaven) be of God, 
how is it consistent, that the clmrches had rest — walk- 
ing in the COMFORT OF the HOLY GHOST, a 
unless the Holy Ghost be a person in the unity of God ? 
and how can he be styled by way of eminence, THE 
comforter , b if there be a God distinct from him, who 
claims that title ? for then he is not the comforter, but 
one of the two : and two divine comforters, like two al- 
mighties, would make two Gods ; which is not a prin- 
ciple of Christianity, but of Heathen idolatry. And 
the same reasoning will hold good as to another of his 
titles. For the Holy Ghost is called, by way of emi- 
nence, THE SPIRIT, i. e. the true and principal, the 
head and Father of all other spirits. Yet we are told 
that God is a Spirit : d so that unless the Spirit be also 
God, we must believe in two supreme, distinct and in- 
dependent Spirits. And thus we justly argue for the 
divinity of Christ j that because GOD is LIGHT, e 
and Christ is the LIGHT. f Therefore, he is and 
must be God', even the TRUE God, because he is the 
TRUE lights 

a Acts ix. 3. el John i. 5. 

b e O <sra,peLx,\i)<r& i John xiv« 26, f John i. 4. 7, 8. & ?iii. 12. 

c 1 John v. 6. g Ibid, i, 9, 

dJohniv.24* 



THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOS?. 91 

XIII. 

t Cor. ii. 11. For what man knoweth the 
things of a man, save the spirit of a man 
which is in him ? even so the things of 
God knoweth (*JW) none but the Spirit 
of God. 

The spirit of a man knows the things of a man for 
this reason, because it is in him. For the same reason, 
the Spirit of God knows the things of God, because it 
is in the godhead j than which nothing farther need 
be desired to prove the co-essentiality of the Holy 
Ghost. 3 - If you take it otherwise, there can be no 
parallel between the two cases. For how strange 
would it be to say — the human spirit knows the 
things of a man, because it is in him ; EVEN SO, 
the divine Spirit knows the things of God, because it is 
out of him. This text brings the matter to a short is- 
sue. The church affirms the Spirit to be in God, as a 
person of the same divine nature: the Arians deny it, 
and will understand him to be out of God; not a person 
of the divine nature, but one inferior to, and distinct 
from it. To see on which side the truth lies, a man 
needs no other qualification but that of faith, to re- 
ceive the scripture as the infallible word of God: which 
the Arians, in most of their writings have freely con- 

a The scripture uses the same preposition to denote the co- essentiality 
of Christ— John xiv. 11. lam (EN to> Uairpt) in the Father. And 
xiii. 32, God shall glorify him (EN i&V7u>) In himself. 



9& THE DIVINITY OP THE HOLY GHOST. 

fessed it to be. If once they come openly to deny 
this, they are no longer Avians, but infidels of another 
denomination, with whom a different course is to be 
taken. 

XIV. 

1 Cor. ii. 11. The things of God know- 

eth no man. 
Ibid. v. 14. But the natural man receiveth 

not the things of the Spirit of God. 

Here again, the scripture makes no distinction, far- 
ther than that of personality, between God, and the 
Spirit of God; but renders unto God the things that 
are God's, by rendering them to the Spirit, who is 
God. 

XV. 

Deut. vi. 16. and Matt. iv. 7. Thou shalt 
not tempt the Lord thy God. 

Acts v. 9. How is it that ye have agreed 
to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? 

The Spirit is here substituted as the object of that 
particular act of disobedience, of which, according to 
the law and the gospel, the only object is the Lord 
our God: therefore the Spirit is the Lord our God. 



THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



93 



Dr. Clarke denies that in "anyplace of scripture 
there is any mention made of any SIN against the 
Holy Ghost but only of a BLASPHEMY."* He 
that can distinguish BLASPHEMY from SIN, must 
be an acute reasoner ; when it is of all sins the great- 
est. But is it no SIN against the Holy Ghost to lye to 
him, to grieve him, b or to tempt him ? Why then did 
the Lord swear in his wrath against those that griev- 
ed him, if it were no SIN ? iVndwhy was that com- 
mandment given in the law, thou shalt not tempt the 
Lord thy God? And if the Spirit be tempted, is not 
the Spirit the object offended by that temptation? This 
is the very thing that learned man was afraid of. He 
would have proved blasphemy to be no sin, lest the 
Spirit should appear to be the object of sin ; for that 
would have proved him to be God, the author and 
giver of the law : and that, again, would have spoiled 
his scripture doctrine : so the short way was to deny it. 



XYI. 

©en. vi. 3. And the Lord said, my Spirit 
shall not always strive with man. 

The Spirit of the Lor d strove with the inhabitants of 
the old world, endeavoring to reclaim them by grace, 
and waiting long for their repentance. But this is 
called, 1 Pet. iii. 20. the long-suffering of GOD that 
waited in the days of Noah. 

a S. D. p, IJ& h Eph. iv. 30, 



9* THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

XVII. 

Luke xi. 20, If I with the finger of Go© 
cast out devils. 

The parallel place in St. Matthew's gospel has it 
thus : 

Matt. xii. 28. If I with the Spirit of God 
cast out devils. 

The finger of God is a metaphorical expression for 
the immediate power and agency of God : and to say- 
that devils were cast out by the finger of God, is the 
same as to say, that they were cast out by God him- 
self But it appears from the text of St. Matthew, that 
this particular act of the finger of God, that is, of God 
himself was the act of the SPIRIT; therefore, the 
the Spirit is God himself 

XVIII. 

Ezek. viii. 1 — 3. The hand of the Lord 
God fell there upon ine — and he (the Lord 
God) put forth the form of an hand, and 
took me by a lock of mine head, and the 
Spirit lifted me ujp, &c. 

In this text, the name of the Lord God, and the 
name of the Spirit, do both belong to the same person : 
for though it be said that the Spirit lifted up the pr<j- 



THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. $5 

phet, yet was it no other than the Lord God who put 
forth the form of an hand and took him: therefore the 
SPIRIT is the LORD GOD. 

XIX. 

Acts iv. 24, 35. They lifted up their voice 
to God with one accord, and said, Lord 
thou art God, which hast made heaven 
and earth, and the sea, and all that there- 
in is. Who by the mouth of thy servant 
David has said, &c. 

The terms LORD and GOD are here used to ex- 
press the divinity of him who spake by the mouth 
of his servant David. But it was the person of the 
HOLY GHOST, who spake by the mouth of his ser- 
vant David — for, saith St. Peter — this scripture must 
needs have been fulfilled, which the HOLY GHOST 
by the month of DAVID spake, &c. Therefore, the 
terms LORD and GOD are certainly used to express 
the divinity of the HOLY GHOST. 

So again : 

It was the LORD GOD of Israel who SPAKE 
by the mouth of his holy prophets, since the world be- 
gan. Luke i. 68. 70. 

But then, it is written— well SPAKE the HOLY 
GHOST bjEsaias the prophet? &c. Therefore the 
Holy Ghost is the LORD GOD of Israel, 

a Acts, xxviii. 23. 



96 



THE DIVINITY OP THE HOLY GHOST. 



XX. 



Psalm cxxxix. 7? 8. Whither shall I go from 
thy Spirit ? Or whither shall I go from 
thy presence f If I ascend up into hea- 
ven, thou art there. 

The psalmist, to acknowledge the omnipresence of 
the Holy Ghost, says — whither shall I go from thy 
Spirit ? and by what is immediately subjoined, he 
shews this to be the omnipresence of God himself.— 
If I ascend up into heaven, THOU art there. So that 
the terms thou, and thy Spirit, are equivalent ; i. e. 
equally conclusive for the immediate presence of the 
divine nature itself. 

xxt. 

It was said by the angel — Luke i. 32. — He shall be 
great, and shall be called the SON of the HIGHEST. 
But the reason given upon this occasion WHY Christ 
was called the SON OF GOD, is this, and this only, 
viz. because he was begotten by the Holy Ghost— 
" The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the 
power of the HIGHEST shall overshadow thee: 
THEREFORE also that holy thing which shall be 
born of thee shall be called the Son of GOD." v. 35. 

When Jesus is called the Son of God, we' understand 
the supreme and true God, besides whom there is no 
other. The devils themselves allowed it, and said— 



THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 97 

"Jesus, thou Son of God MOST HIGH ■!"* But 
the person in God, whose son Jesus is said to be in 
this place, is the Holy Ghost, by whose power (called 
the power of the highest) he was begotten of the bles- 
sed virgin, and thence called the Son of God, 

Therefore, the Holy Ghost is God, and the highest, 

XXII. 

The prophet Isaiah, in his 6th chapter, tells us he 
saw the LORD OF HOSTS. And at ver. 8. tha£ 
he heard the voice of the LORD, SAYING— Go 
and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, 
&c. 

Yet these very words, which the prophet declares to 
have been spoken by the Lord, even the Lord of Hosts, 
were spoken by the Holy Ghost— Well SPAKE THE 
HOLY GHOST, by Esaiasi/ie prophet, unto our fa- 
thers, saying, Go unto this people and say, hearing ye 
shall liear, and shall not understand^ &c. 

Therefore, the HOLY GHOST is the LORD OP 
HOSTS. 

The article of the Holy Ghost's supreme and ab- 
solute divinity being now established in the plainest 
terms \ I shall proceed to answer, from the scripture, 
the objection usually made against it from thence. 

XXIII. 

f Matt. xix. 17. There is none good but 
one, that is, God. 

a Luke viii. 28. b Acts xxviii. 26, 27. 



98 THE DIVINITY OP THE HOLY GHOST. 

If this be a good objection to the divinity of Christ, 
it must be equally strong against that of the Holy 
Ghost, for it is argued from this passage, that the at- 
tribute of goodness is confined to the single person of 
God the Father; who therefore is a being superior to, 
and different from Christ and the Holy Ghost. The 
error of this argument has been fully shewn above : 
for it is not one person, but one God, whom the scripture 
has asserted to be good; and I now have an opportu- 
nity of confirming it, and of proving* withal, that in 
the unity of this one God, besides whom no other is 
good) the person of the Holy Ghost is, and must be 
included. Far it is written— Thy SPIRIT is GOOD* 
— 'SO that if the same inspired scripture which declares 
the person of the Spirit to be good, does also as plainly 
declare that none is good, but God only ; then the Spirit 
is God, even the only true and supreme God ; and 
we are as well assured of it, as if it had been said, 
" there is none good but one, that is the Spirit, who 
is one with God." The Hebrew in this place is 
yet stronger than the English. It is not 31D good, 
but rD12 goodness itself, that is, divine, essential, un- 
~:?rainricated goodness, besides which there neither 
rf can be any other of the like kind. There is 
. mi of goodness communicated to men upon 
as we read, Psalm cxii. 5. fw good r,^ shew- 
- &c— and Acts ii 24. that Barnabas wa* a 
MdJuU ofja^ &c. There is another 
j adaess to be found only in heaven, and that 

a Psalm cxliii. 10. 



THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 99 

is the goodness of God, which is essential; but this 
goodness is also an attribute of the Spirit; who there* 
fore is proved to be very God; and by that argument 
too, for the sake of which, some hare denied him to 
be God. 

XXIV. 

\ Matt. iii. 16. The Spirit of God. 

The Spirit, say they, is not God, because he is on- 
ly the Spirit of God. But so likewise the human 
spirit, whence the apostle has taugnt us to borrow an 
idea of the divine, is the spirit OF a man; yet, was it 
ever pretended, that the Spirit, for this reason, is one 
being, and the man another? No, certainly: and the 
game must be tree of God, and the Spirit of God ; as 
far as the being of the same man, who is one person, 
can be an image of the same God, who is three persons. 
But there is the plainest testimony of scripture, that 
the Spirit, though said to be the Spirit OF Jehovah, is 
also called by the express name of Jehovah himself. 
For it is written, Judg. xv. 14. that the Spirit OF Jc- 
hovah CAME upon Samson. Yetatchap.xvi.20.it 
is said, that Jehovah himself DEPARTED from him. 
Till it can be shewn, then, that the person who came 
upon him was one, and the person who departed from 
him was another ; it is undeniable, that the Spirit, 
though said to be OF Jehovah, is strictly and properly 
Jehovah himself 



100 jHE BIVINITY OP THE HOLY GHOST. 

XXV. 

f Heb. ii. 4. God also bearing them wit- 
ness with — gifts of the Holy Ghost ac- 
cording to his own will. 

Hence it is objected, that the Holy Ghost is subser- 
vient and subordinate to the will of another ; therefore 
he cannot be the supreme and true God. But if this 
own will of God should prove to be no other than the 
will of the Spirit, this imaginary objection of the Ari- 
ans, which if it be an error must also be a blasphemy, 
will turn to a demonstration against them. And that 
the will of God really is the will of the Spirit, is mani- 
fest from 1 Cor. xii. 11. all these worketh that one and 
the self-same SPIRIT, dividing to every man severally 
as HE (even lie himself) WILLETH. 

XXVL 

f Rom. viii. 26. The Spirit itself maJceth 
intercession for us. 

The Spirit is not God, because he makeih interces- 
sion with God ; and God, as it is imagined, cannot 
intercede with himself. But it is a matter of fact, that 
he has actually done this: therefore it is wicked and 
false to say that he cannot. For God reconciled the 
world TO HIMSELF, and it was done by intercession. 
The other objections I meet with, are all of this stamp : 
as that the Spirit is said to be given, to proceed, to be 



THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 401 

poured out, to be sent ; and they argue that it is im- 
possible for God to give, to proceed from, or to send, him- 
self. But here the question is begged, that God is 
but one person, in which case it might be a contradic- 
tion : but the scriptures demonstrate, as it will be seen 
in the following chapter, that God is three persons ; 
and then there is no contradiction in any of these 
things. It is also to be observed, that the giving, 
proceeding, sending, and ministration of the eternal 
Spirit to Christ in glory, are terms that concern not 
the divine nature, but relate merely to the acts and of- 
fices, which the several persons of the blessed trinity 
have mercifully condescended to take upon them, for 
conducting the present economy of man's redemption 
and sanctification. 

By this time, I take it for granted, every pious read- 
er must have observed, how copious and conclusive 
the scriptures of the Old Testament are, upon the sub- 
ject of the trinity ; and that without having recourse to 
them upon every occasion, it is impossible for me or 
for any man to deal fairly and honestly by the apos- 
tolical doctrine of the Church of England. Our Lord 
himself has told us, that every scribe, or teacher, in- 
structed into the kingdom of heaven, slimdd bring forth 
out of his treasure, things NEW and old. a It was 
his own >>ractice. He appealed, at every turn, to the 
law, the prophets, and the psalms, for the testimony of 
his own doctrine ; and the church has followed his 
example, from the days of the apostles almost down to 
the present times. And so far is the Old Testament 

a Matt xiii. 52. 
I 2 



iOB THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

from being no part of the scripture, that it is the book* 
and the only, book, the gospel calls by the name of 
the scripture. It was this book, which the noble and 
faithful Berxans searched every day of their lives, 
to see whether the gospel then preached and after- 
wards published in the New Testament, was agreeable 
to it; with the intention, either to receive or reject 
it, as it should appear to be recommended by this 
authority. It was this book, for his skill in which, 
Apollos is praised as one mighty in the scriptures; 
the same scriptures, of which St. Paul was bold to 
affirm, for the benefit of a brother Christian, that they 
were able to make him wise unto salvation through 
faith that is in Christ Jesus. As long as this faith 
flourished in the church, these scriptures were much 
read and profitably understood : but now it is dwindled 
into a dry lifeless system of morality, they are be- 
come in a manner useless ; and some (it grieves me 
to say it) even of those who have undertaken to teach 
others, want themselves to be taught again this first 
element of Christianity, that the New Testament can 
never be understood and explained, but by comparing 
it with the Old. 

Of this error and its consequences we have a sad 
example in the celebrated Dr. Clarke ; a man, whose 
talents might have adorned the doctrine of Christ, 
had not his faith been eaten up by an heathen spirit 
of imagination and philosophy. He published a 
book entitled, the Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity ; 
a work of great pains and premeditation. In a 
short preface he allows the subject to be of the 



THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 108 

greatest importance in religion — not to be treated of 
carelessly— -but examined by a serious study of the 
WHOLE SCRIPTURE. And to convince the 
world that this and no other was his own practice, 
he affirms, in his introduction, p. 17. and prints it in 
capitals, that he has collected ALL the texts relating 
to that matter. Yet his whole collection is finished 
and shut up without a single text from the Old Tes- 
tament ! I cannot find that he has even mentioned 
such a book. " The Christian revelation," says he, 
p. 1. " is the doctrine of Christ and his apostles.' 
This he calls, p. 4. — " The books of scripture ;" 
and again, p. 5. — " The books of scripture — not only 
the rule, but the whole and the only rule of truth — 
the only foundation we have to go upon." And he 
proves it thus< — "because no man has since pretend- 
ed to have any new revelation." An argument that 
will prejudice few people in favour of his sincerity. 
For though there has been no new revelation SINCE 
the books of the New Testament, as we all confess : 
does it follow that there was no old revelation BE- 
FORE them? And did this author never read, that 
the same GOD, who spake in these last days by his 
Son, spake in time past unto the fathers by the proph- 
ets ? a yet he affects to know nothing at all of the 
matter. And as to the use he makes of the New 
Testament, who would expect, that a man who has 
made nothing of one half of God's revelation, should be 
very nice in his treatment of the other ? In the first 

a Hebrewsi. I. 



i04 THE DIVINITY OP THE HOLY GHOST. 

place, he has not vouchsafed to follow the apostle'g 
direction of comparing spiritual things with spiritual, 
thence to collect their true meaning ; but sets down 
his texts in such an order, as makes them to be all single 
and independent of one another; and that gives all pos- 
sible liberty to the imagination to thrust in what sort 
of comment it pleases. When he refers to any paral- 
lel place (which I think is never done, but on one side 
of the question) the reader is not directed to the text 
itself, but to the meaning he has fastened upon it. At 
the beginning of every chapter, he sets down his own 
opinion at large, as the title of it ; and you are to be- 
lieve, that all the passages of that division do certainly 
prove it : which if cleared of his comments, and com- 
pared with other texts, are found to prove no such 
thing, but the very contrary. And this he calls the 
Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity : but if we call it by 
its true name, it is — Clarke's Doctrine of the Scripture; 
that is, of half the Scripture. How it came to pass, 
that he should thus boldly set down his own resolu- 
tions upon the most profound article of the Christian 
faith, without consulting all the evidence that relates 
to it, or rightly examining any part of it : how this 
came to pass, God is to determine, to whom all things 
are naked and open. All 1 have to do with him, is 
to rescue the word of God from such deceitful hand, 
ling. And I have prevailed with myself to make 
these few reflections, because I find some modern ob" 
jectors of a lower class, have used this book in conver- 
sation and in print, as the oracle of the party, taking 
the scripture upon trust as bis principles would give 



THE BIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 105 

kim leave to retail it. I know it will be accounted 
an hard thing, and called invidious, to rake thus into 
the ashes of a writer who is not alive to answer for 
himself. And I confess, I am very far from taking 
any pleasure in it. But is it not much harder, that 
the ashes of this man should be scattered over the 
land to breed and inflame the plague of heresy, till 
the whole head is sick and the heart faint, and the 
whole body full of putrifying blains and sores? Arianism 
is now no longer a pestilence that walketh in darkness 
but that brazens it out against the sun's light, and 
destroyeth in the noon day. It is a canker, which if it 
be encouraged much longer, will certainly eat out the 
vitals of Christianity in this kingdom : and when 
the faith is gone, the church in all probability will 
soon follow after it ; for if the holy oil be wasted and 
spilt the lamp that was made to hold it, will be of no 
farther use. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE 

PLURALITY 

AND 

TMIMTY OW F>JEMSOJV§. 



The Hebrew name so often used in the Old Testa- 
ment, which we have translated by the word God, ig 
Elohim, a noun substantive of the plural number, reg- 
ularly formed from its singular,* and very frequently 
joined with plural verbs and plural adjectives, to ex- 
press a plurality in the divine nature : though for an- 
other obvious reason, it is generally constructed with 
verbs and pronouns of the singular number, and gives 
a good sense, though the grammar of it be somewhat 
irregular. 

The Jews would persuade us not to consider this 
word as a plural noun, but on some particular occa- 
sions. Whoever will be at the pains to examine their 

* Hi 1 ?** and vhti see the Heb, of Deut. xxxii. 17. and Heb. i. 11 = 



THE PLURALITY AND TRINITY OF PERSONS. 407 
reasoning, will find it to be very childish and incon- 
sistent, wholly owing to their hatred against the di- 
vinity of Jesus Christ, and the notion of a trinity. 
But when the Jew is become a Christian, and the 
stumbling-block of the cross removed out of his way, 
he can allow the n&meElohim to be plural as readily 
as other men ; and it is one of the principal points he 
chuses to insist upon, to convince the world that his 
eyes are open, and he is sincere in his profession of 
the Christian religion. 

John Xeres, a Jew, converted here in England about 
forty years ago, published a sensible and affectionate 
address to his unbelieving brethren, wherein he lays 
before them his reasons for leaving the Jewish religion 
and embracing the Christian. "The Christians (says 
he)* confess Jesus to be God ; and it is this that makes 
us look upon the gosples as books that overturn 
the very principles of religion, the truth of which is 
built upon this article, the unity of God. In this 
argument lies the strength of what you object against 
the Christian religion." Then he undertakes to 
prove that the unity of God is not such as he once 
understood ft to be, an unity of person, but of essence, 
under which more persons than one are comprehend- 
ed ; and the first proof he offers is that of the name 
Elohim. " Why else, says he,f is that frequent men- 
tion of God by nouns of the plural number ? as in 
Gen. i. 1. where the word Elohim, which is rendered 
God, is of the plural number, though annexed to a 

* P. 53. f P. 57. 



108 THE PLURALITY AND 

verb of the singular number ; which demonstrates as 
evidently as may be, that there are several persons 
partaking of the same divine nature and essence." 

II. 

Gen. i. 26. And god said, let us make 
man in our image, after our likeness. 

No sensible reason can be given, why God should 
speak of himself in the plural number, unless he con- 
sists of more persons than one. Dr. Clarke contrived 
the plan of his Scripture Doctrine so as to leave out 
this difficulty with many more of the same kind. 
Others there are who tell us it is a figurative way of 
speaking, only to express the dignity of God, not to 
denote any plurality in him. For they observe it 
is customary for a king, who is only one person, to 
speak of himself in the same style. But how absurd 
is it, that God should borrow his way of speaking 
from a king, before a man was created upon the earth f 
And even granting this to be possible, yet the cases 
will not agree. For though a king or governor may 
say us and n>£, there is certainly no figure of speech 
that will allow any single person to say, one of us, 
when he speaks of himself. It is a phrase that can 
have no meaning, unless there be more persons than 
one to chuse out of. Yet this, as we shall find, is 
the style in which God has spoken of himself in the 
following article. Though it be impossible to ap- 



TRINITY OF PERSONS. 109 

ply this plural expression to any but the persons of 
the godhead, there is a writer who has attempted to 
turn the force of it by another text, in which, as he 
says very truly, the weakness of the argument will ap- 
pear at sight. God invites the people by the prophet 
Isaiah, and says, " come now and let us reason to- 
gether," chap. i. ver. 18. Upon which he remarks? 
that, " if this form of expression puts the children of 
Israel upon an equality with God, then we may 
allow some force in this argument." a 

And so we may if it doe3 not. For let us reason 
refers to an act common to all spirits; and therefore 
no Christian ever thought of arguing from it. But 
let us make man refers only to an act of the godhead. 
All spirits can reason : but only the supreme Spirit 
can create. Therefore the author, instead of answer- 
ing the expression, hath only brought together two 
texts as widely different as God and man. 

If the King were to say to another, " let us see?* 
or let " us breathe" no man would be so weak as to 
think that the expression denoted any equality or 
co-ordination in the person so spoken to. But if he 
should say, "let us pardon a malefactor condemned 
by the law," then the expression would admit of such 
an inference. And the objector might have been 
aware of these distinctions, if he had prematurely 
settled his f->"th before he had consulted the holy 
scripture. 

a See an Appeal to the Common Sense of all Christian People, p, 139, 

K 



110 



THE PLURALITY AND 



in. 



Gen. iii. SS. And the Lord God said, behold 
the man is become like one of us. 

The Jews are greatly perplexed with this passage. 
They endeavor to put it off, by telling us, God must 
here be understood to speak of himself and his council, 
or as they term it JH JT3 his house of judgment, made 
up of angels, &c. to which there needs no answer 
but that of the prophet, who hath known the mind of 
the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor ? a 

IV. 

Gen. xi. 6, 7* And the Lord said — let us 
go down and there confound (Heb. let us 
confound) their language. 

Another instance of this occurs in Isaiah vi. 8. 1 
heard the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send 
and who will go for us ? Upon the plural word nobis s 
us, there is a short note of Junius and Tremellius t 
which contains the substance of all that can be said 
upon the occasion — "Nam consilium est Dei Patris t 
Filii, So Spiritus Sancti" — For this (say they) is a con- 
sultation of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. 
—And it shall be proved to be so, in a proper place 
from an inspired comment upon this chapter of Isaiah 

a Rom. xi. 34. and Isa. xL 13 



TRINITY OF PERSONS, 411 

V. 

Gen. xx. 13. And it came to pass wheu 
God caused me to wander from my fa= 
ther's house, &c. 

The Hebrew is — Beus err are facerent—God they 
caused me to wander: which, however strange it 
may sound to an English hearer, is the strict gram- 
matical rendering of the original. And the expres- 
sion is affirmed by Junius and Tremellius, with other 
commentators out of number, to respect the plurality 
of the persons in the godhead. They have a short note 
upon it to the following effect — Plurale verbum cum 
Dei nomine, ad indicandum S. Triados mysterium : 
which I mention, not in the way of an authority, 
but only to show how clear the case is to an Hebrew 
reader, whose mind is without prejudice. And 
though others may have attempted to conceal such 
evidence as this under an heap of critical rubbish, 
yet if we are to come to no resolution till those who 
dislike the doctrine of a trinity have done disputing 
about the words that convey it, the day of judgment 
itself would find us undetermined. And if we would 
but attend to this state of the case, and apply it also 
to other points of doctrine, I am well convinced it 
would shorten many of our disputes, and make the 
V/ord of God a much more easy and intelligible book 
than it passes for at present. 



US THE PLURALITY AND 

VI. 

Gen. xxv. 7. Because there God appeared 
unto him, &c. 

Here again the Hebrew verb is plural — Deusreve- 
lati sunt — God they appeared, or were revealed to him. 
So again in 2 Sam. vii. 23. — even like Israel whom 
God went to redeem : which in the original is— ive- 
runt Dens ad redimendum ; the verb being in the plural. 
A celebrated Latin translator 9 - of the Old Testament 
has ventured to render it — iverunt Dii ad redimendum: 
but Dii in Latin is not answerable to Elohim in the 
Hebrew ; and, in strictness, may be thought to coun- 
tenance the notion of Tritheism or a plurality of Gods ; 
which is abhorrent from the express doctrine of the 
scripture : and against which the name Elohim is 
purposely guarded, by its being connected so very 
often with verbs and pronouns in the singular. 

VII. 

Dent. iv. 7. What nation is there so great 
that hath God so nigh unto them ? &c. 

In the two preceding articles we have seen the 
name of God connected with plural verbs : it is here 
joined to a plural adjective, whose termination- is - the 
same with its own ; for the original has it — Elohim 
Rerebim — Deus propinqui — God who are so near. 

a Pagnirmsin his interlinear? version published by Montagu-:. 



TRINITY OF PERSONS. 1 1 § 

Another instance of which we have in Josh. xxiv. 19. 
Ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is an holy God. 
; For the Hebrew reads it — Deus sancti ipse, — he is a 
God who are holy ones. And again, Psalm lviii. 12* 
Doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth : the 
Hebrew of which is — Deus judicantes in terra — a Goof 
(i. e. divine persons) who are judging in the earth. 

VIII. 

Several other nouns there are besides the name 
Elohim, as well adjective as substantive, that are set 
down in the plural number, where it cannot be denied 
that the being of God is to be understood by them. 

Mai. i. 6. If I be a MASTER, where is my fear ? 
The Heb. is O^IK Adonim, in the 'plural — If I am 
masters, &c. 

Isa. liv. 5. For thy maker is thine husband, the Lord 
of hosts is his name. Here also the Hebrew substan- 
tives for thy maker and thy husband, are both plural 
■-ytyj; yhyi. And to prove that YWp cannot signify 
thy maker, in the singular number, it is also found 
connected with the word Jehovah in its singular form* 
without the * inserted; as in Isa. li. 13. — And forget* 
test the Lord thy maker — yay mn\ 

Eccl. xii. 1. Remember thy creator in the days of 
thy youth, <fcc. The Hebrew of which is — Remember 
AN T«1U thy creators, in the plural. And there is no- 
thing strange in this, when we can prove so easily 
that the world and all men in it were created by a 
trinity. < 

K2 



41* T HE PLURALITY AND 

Instead of the usual names of God, adjectives ex- 
pressing some divine attribute are very frequently sub- 
stituted : and these also occur in the plural, as in the 
following examples. 

Prov. ix. 1 0. The fear of the Lord is the beginning 
of wisdom, and the knowledge (O'tsnp) of the HOLY 
ONES is understanding. Another instance of which 
may be found in chap. xxx. 3. See also Hos. xi. 12. 
in the Hebrew, xii. 1. 

Eccl. v. 8. There be HIGHER than they. The 
Hebrew is (OTDJ) high ones, in the plural ; and is un- 
derstood even by the Jews themselves to mean the 
holy and blessed God. Junius and Tremellius put al- 
tissimus in their text, but acknowledge the Hebrew 
to be alti — flurale pro singulari superlativo, mysterium 
S. Triados notans. 

Psalm, Ixxviii. 25. Man did eat Angels' 
food. 

The w T ord (CTT3K) mighty ones, is never used for 
angels ; and must in this place signify God, for the 
two following reasons: 1. Because Abir in the sin- 
gular is several times used absolutely as a name of 
God ; who is called Abir Israel, the mighty one of 
Israel, and Abir Jacob, the mighty one of Jacob. Gen. 
xlix. 24. Psalm cxxxii. 2. where the LXX have ren- 
dered it €>£<^v 2. Because our blessed Saviour, in 
discoursing upon the manna, John vi. 31 — 33, quotes 
this part of the Psalm, and calls that the bread of God 
from heaven, which in the Psalm itself is called the 



TRINITY OP PERSONS. 115 

bread of the mighty. Therefore Abirim is put for 
Elohim, and is taken in the plural because God is 
plural. 

IX. 

Dan. iv. 26. And whereas they command- 
ed to leave the stump of the tree roots? 

&c. 

At the 13th verse of this chapter we read only of 
one watcher or holy one coming down from heaven, of 
whom it is said that HE cried — leave the stump of his 
roots in the earth. Yet the number is here very re- 
markably changed from he said to they commanded. 
And though the words of the curse upon Nebuchad- 
nezzar were pronounced by a watcher and an holy one, 
in the singular; nevertheless, at the close of the 
speech, this matter is declared to be by the decree of 
the WATCHERS and the demand by the word of the 
HOLY ONES.a Now it is very certain that the 
judgments of God are not founded upon the decree 
and word of angels, or of any created beings ; there- 
fore this watcher could be no created angel, but a 
person in the Lord Jehovah, who condescends to watch 
over^ his people, and is called the keeper of Israel, that 
neither slumbereth nor sleepeth. The change of these 
verbs and nouns from the singular to the plural, can 
be accounted for upon no other principle : it is a case 

a Ver. 17. Compare this with Prov. ix. 10. cited in No. VIII. of this 
chapter. b Jer. xxxi 28. 



4 1 6 THE PLURALITY AND 

to which there is no parallel in any language, and 
such as can be reconciieable only to the being of 
God, who is one and many. We are to collect from 
it v that in this, as in every act of the godhead, there 
was a consent and concurrence of the persons 
in the trinity; and though there was one only who 
spake, it was the word and decree of all. There is an 
instance of this sort in the New Testament. The dis- 
ciples of Christ were commanded to baptize in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
And, without doubt, the baptism they administered 
was in all cases agreeable to the prescribed form. 
Nevertheless we are told of some, who were com^ 
manded to be baptized in the name of the Lord,* and 
particularly in the name of the Lord Jesus ; b so that 
there was a strange defect either in the baptism 
itself, or in. the account we have of it; or the mention 
of one person in the trinity must imply the presence,, 
name, and authority of them all ; as the passage is 
understood by Irenseus — in Christi nomine subauditur 
qui unxit, & qui unctus est, & ipsa unctio in qua unctus 
est. Lib.. HI. cap. 20. 

X. 

Dan. v. 18^ The most high God gave to 
Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom and majesty 
and glory and honor. 

Y* SO. And they took his glory from him* 

a Acts x. 48c b Ibid. viii. 16. 



TRINITY OF PERSONS, 117 

Here again, the word they is a plain relative to the 
-most high God. Nor can it otherwise be agreeable to 
the sense of the history, or the reason of the thing it- 
self, considered as a matter of fact. For who was it 
that took away the glory of the king ? It was not the 
work of inert, „but a supernatural act of the most high 
God; to whom Nebuchadnezzar himself hath ascribed 
it — those that walk in pride HE is able to abase. 

I might here subjoin in proof of a plurality, those 
numerous passages of the Old Testament, wherein 
God is spoken of or speaks of himself, as of more per- 
sons than one. I will produce a few of them, to shew 
that such are not wanting. Gen. xix. 24. The Lord 
rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and 
fire from the Lord out of heaven. Psal. ex. 1. The Lord 
said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, &c. 
Dan. ix. 17. Now therefore, O our God, hear the pray- 
er of thy servant— for the Lord's sake. Prov. xxx. 4. 
Who hath established all the ends of the earth ? What 
is his name, and what is his Son's name, if thou canst 
tell? Isa. x. 12. When the Lord hath performed his, 
whole work upon Jerusalem I will punish, &c. Ibid, 
xiii. 13. I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall 
remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of 
hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. Ibid. xxii. 1 9. 
And I will drive thee from thy station, and from thy 
state shall he pull thee down. Ibid. lxiv. 4. Neither 
hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath pre- 
pared for him that waitethfor him. Hosea i. 7. I will 
have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them 
by the Lord their God. Zech. ii. 10, 11. I will dwell 



118 THE PLURALITY AND 

in the midst of thee, saith the Lord ; and many nations 
shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall be my 
people ; and I will dwell in the midst of thee and thou 
shalt know thai the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee. 
Ibid. x. 12. And I will strengthen them in the Lord, and 
they shall walk up and down in his name, faith the Lord. 
The passages hitherto produced in this chapter are 
designed only to prove an indefinite plurality in God. 
In the remaining part of it, I shall bring forward an- 
other class of texts, which shews this plurality to be 
^trinity* 

XL 

Psal. xxxiii. 6. By the word of the Lord 
were the heavens made, and all the host 
of them by the breath (Ueb. Spirit) of his 
mouth. 

The breath or the Spirit of the Lord's mouth, does 
undoubtedly mean the third person of the trinity ; who 
is called, Job xxxiii. 4. The Spirit of God, and the 
breath of the Almighty. And it should here be re- 
membered, that when Christ communicated the Holy 
Ghost to his disciples, he did it by breathing upon 
them : a a demonstration that Christ our Saviour, who* 
as a person, is the word of the Lord, is in nature the 
Lord himself; because the Spirit or breath of the Ah 
mighty is also the breath of Christ. And this fact is 
also decisive for the word FILIOQUE, so much con- 
troverted in the Nicene Creed. 

3 John xx. 22. 



TRINITY OF PERSONS, 119 

XII. 

Psal. xlviii. 16. And now the Lord God 
and his Spirit hath sent me. 

The speaker in this verse is no other than Christ? 
who at ver. 12. calls himself the first and the last, and 
does here declare himself to be sent, not only by the 
Lord God but also by his Spirit : which should be ta- 
ken some notice of, because the Arians have objected 
to the co-equality of the Son with the Father, because 
he is said to be sent by him. But if this should hold, it 
will follow that Christ, for the same reason, is also infe- 
rior to the Spirit. The author of an Essay on Spirit f 
whose violent proceedings in the Church have chiefly 
moved me to draw up these papers, is warm in the 
pursuit of this argument, that Christ is inferior to the 
Father, because he was sent by him. " We may 
therefore, says he, fairly argue, as our Saviour himself 
does upon another occasion — that as the servant is 
not equal to his lord, so neither is he that is sent equal to 
him that sent him"* Not quite so fairly : for here 
is a gross misrepresentation, of which, and of many 
other things, this author should give us some account, 
before he proceeds any farther in the work of refor- 
mation ; it being a maxim, I think, with the wise and 
learned, that a man should always reform himself be- 
fore he undertakes to reform the world. Upon the 
occasion he refers to, our Saviour has said — The ser* 

a Page 93, 



120 



THE PLURALITY AND 



vant is NOT GREATER than his Lord; neither is 
he that is sent GREATER than he that sent him* 
But in the place of this, he has ventured to substitute 
another reading that comes up to his point, and agrees 
better with the intended work of reformation — " he 
that is sent is not equal to him that sent him ;" print- 
ing the word equal in a different character to make it 
more observable ; and then puts an objection of his 
own forging into the mouth of our blessed Saviour* 
He professes himself a great enemy to human com- 
positions: and we have reason to believe him, where 
those compositions are not his own. But his making 
so free with this and many other texts, does not look as 
if he was any great friend to the compositions of the 
Holy Ghost ; and can do but little credit to a Vindica- 
tor of the Holy Scriptures from the cavils and scoffs 
of an infidel. 

XIII* 

Isa. xxxiv. 16. Seek ye out of the book 
of the Lord and read — for my mouth it 
hath commanded, and his Spirit it hath 
gathered them. 

In these words there is one person speaking of the 
Spirit of another person : so that the whole trinity is 
here included. Whether God the Father or God the 
S&n is to be understood as the speaker, it is neither 

a Johfi xiii. 16. 



TRINITY OP PERSONS. 1^1 

easy nor material to determine. I am rather inclined 
to think it is the former. 

XIV. 

Numb. iv. 24, &c„ 

The Lord bless thee and keep thee. 
The Lord make his face to shine upon 

thee, and be gracious unto thee. 
The Lord lift up his countenance upon.' 

thee, and give thee peace. 

After this form the High Priest was commanded to 
bless the children of Israel. The name of the Lord, 
in Hebrew Jehovah, is here repeated three times- 
And parallel to this is the form of Christian Bap- 
tism ; wherein the three personal terms of Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, are not represented as so many dif- 
ferent names, but as one name : the one divine nature 
of God being no more divided by these three, than 
by the single name Jehovah thrice repeated. If the 
three articles of this benediction be attentively con- 
sidered, their contents will be found to agree respec- 
tively to the three persons taken in the usual or- 
der of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The 
Father is the author of blessing and preservation. Grace 
and illumination are from the Son, by whom we have 
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the 
lace of Jesus Christ. Peace is the gift of the Spirit, 
whose name is the Comforter, and whose first and best 
fruit is the work of peace. 



1SS THE PLURALITY AND 

Petrus Alphonsi, an eminent Jew, converted in the 
beginning of the 12th Century, and presented to the 
font by Alphonsus a king of Spain, wrote a learned 
treatise against the Jews, wherein he presses them 
with this scripture, as a plain argument that there 
are three persons to whom the great and incommunica- 
ble name of Jehovah is applied* And even the uncon- 
verted Jews according to Bechai, one of their Rabbi's, 
have a tradition, that when the high priest pronounced 
this blessing over the people — elevatione manuum sic 
digitos composuit, ut Triada expr inter ent — he lifted up 
his hands, and disposed his fingers into such a form as 
to express a trinity. All the foundation there is for 
this in the scripture, is Lev. ix. 22. As for the rest, 
be it a matter of fact or not, yet if we consider 
whence it comes, there is something very remarka- 
ble in it. See Observ. Jos. de vois. in Pug. Fid. p. 
4G0, 556, 557. 

XV. 

Math, xxviii. 10. Baptizing them in the 
Bame of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost. 

XVL 

% Thes. iii. 5. The Lord (the Holy Ghost^ 
see C. 3. Art. 4. 18.) direct your hearts 
into the love of God (the Father) and into 
the patient waiting for Christ, 



TRINITY OF PERSONS. 123 

XVIL 

5 Cor. xiii. 14. Thte grace of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and 
the communion of the Holy Ghost. 

In this and the foregoing article, the order of the 
persons is different from that of Matth. xxviii. 19. 
The Holy Ghost having the first place in the former 
of them, and Christ in the latter : which is a sufficient 
warrant for that clause in the creed of St. Athanasius 
— In this Trinity, " none is afore or after other.*' 
And Dr. Clarke, I presume, apprehended something 
of this sort ; because he has corrected the apostle, 
and transposed the order of the persons in 2 Cor. xiii, 
14. without the least apology, or giving his reader 
ajiy warning of it. § LV. p. 37 lo 

XVIIL 

1 John v. 7. There are three that bear re- 
cord in heaven, the Father, the Word 
and the Holy Ghost. — 

There has been much disputing about the authen* 
ticity of this text I firmly believe it to be genuine 
for the following reasons : 1. St. Jerom* who had a 
hetter opportunity of examining the true merits of the 
cause than we can possibly have at this distance of 
time, tells us plainly, that he found out how it had 

a Praef, ad Canon. Epist 



i24 THE PLURALITY AND 

been adulterated, mistranslated, and omitted on pur- 
pose to elude the truth. 2. The divines of Lovain 
having compared many Latin copies, found this text 
wanting but in five of them ; and jR. Stephens found 
it retained in nine of sixteen ancient manuscripts 
which he used. 3. It is certainly quoted twice by St. 
Cyprian,* who wrote before the council of Nice : and 
also by Tertullian ; as the reader is left to judge af- 
ter he has read the passage in the margin.** Dr. 
Clarke, therefore, is not to be believed when he tells 
ns, it was " never cited by any of the Latins before 
St. Jerom" c 4. The sense is not perfect without 
it ; there being a contrast of three witnesses in hea- 
ven to three upon earth ; the Father, the word, and 
the Holy Ghost, whose testimony is called the witness 
of God; and the Spirit, the water, and the blood, which 
being administered by the church upon earth, is called 
the witness of men. He that desires to see this text 
farther vindicated from the malice of Faustus Socinus, 
may consult Pool's Synopsis, and Dr. Hammond; and 
I wish he would also read what has lately been pub- 
lished upon it by my good and learned friend Dr.Ite- 
lany, in his volume of Sermons, p. 69, &c. 

But even allowing it to be spurious, it contains no- 
thing but what is abundantly asserted elsewhere ; and 
that both with regard to the trinity in general, and 
this their divine testimony in particular. For that 

a De Unit. Eccl. 109. Epist. LXXIII. 

b Connexus patris m filio, & silii in paracleto, tres efficit cohserentes, 
alterum ex altero ; qui tres unum sunt, &c. adv. Prax. 
c See the text in his 2d edition. 



TRINITY OF PERSONS. 1^5. 

there are three divine persons who bear record to the 
mission of Christ, is evident from the following scrip- 
tures : 

John viii. 17, 18. The testimony of two men is true. 

lam ONE that bear witness of MYSELF. 

The FATHER that sent me beareih witness of me. 

1 John v. 6. It is the SPIRIT that beareih witness. 
And Christ has also mentioned, upon another occa- 
sion, a plurality of witnesses in heaven — WE speak 
(says he) that we do know, and testify that we have 
seen, and ye receive not OUR witness!* which can be 
BO other than the witness of the trinity ; because it is 
added — no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that 
came down from heaven ; therefore no man could join 
with Christ in revealing the things of heaven to us* 

XIX. 

Isa. vi. 3. And one cried unto another and 
said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of 
hosts. See also Rev. iv. 8. 

" They are not content (says Origeri) to say it once 
or twice, but take the perfect number of the trinity \ 
thereby to declare the manifold holiness of God ; 
which is a repeated intercommunion of a threefold 
holiness ; the holiness of the Father, the holiness of 
the only begotten Son, and of the Holy Ghost ." b And 

a Johniii. 11. 
b Non eis sufficet semel clamare sanctus, neque bis; sed" perfeetum. 
aumerum Triuitatis assumunt, ut mulfltudinem sanctitatis Dei mani. 
festent ; quae est trinse eanfctitatis repetita communitas j sanctitan- 
patris, sanctitaa uuigtnjti filii, & spiritus sancti* Qrig. Horn, in loc. 
L 2 



128 xhE PLURALITY AND 

that the Seraphim did really celebrate all the three 
persons of the Godhead upon this occasion, is no con- 
jecture ; but a point capable of the clearest demonstra- 
tion. 

The prophet tells us, ver. 1. he saw the Lord sit- 
ting upon a throne ; and at ver. 5. that his eyes had 
seen the king, the Lord of Hosts. Now if there be any 
phrase in the bible to distinguish the true God, it is 
this of the Lord of Hosts. I never saw it disputed by 
any Arian writer. The author of an Essay on Spirit 
confesses it ; a and Dr. Clark supposes the name Lord 
of Sabaoth (Jam. v. 4.) proper to the Father only. So 
that in this Lord of hosts, sitting upon his throne, there 
was the presence of God the Father. 

That there was also the presence of God the Son, ap- 
pears from John xii. 41. These things said Esaias, 
when he saw his (Christ's) glory and spake ofhim.\ 

a P. 65. 

f It is Written at ver. 3— Holy, Iioly, holy, is the Lord of Hosts, the 
whole earth is. full of his glory. This St. John has affirmed to be the 
gfory of Christ-, but it was the glory of the Lord of Hosts : therefore, 
Christ is the Lord of Hosts. And if the parallel passage of Rev. iv. 8. 
be compared with this, it will appear (as it hath already chap. I. 
Art. XXIII) that he is the God Almighty spoken of in that book. The 
Greek version of the LXX hath it thus : 

Ays®*, ttyt& 9 ttyi®*, Kupt(§'t<rot£G&a>&. 
tnliev/iv&.itis, <tyt(§ t &yt®',(iyt®'JLvf>t& o 0g@* c <wavt onp*T0$ 
Whence it evidently appears, that Kvf>i& o e*@* o <srav<rox;*TA>e is 
equivalent in the language of heafen to Jehovah Saba&th : therefore, as 
Christ is the Lord of Hosts of the Old Testament, he is thereby proved 
ipso facta to be the God Almighty of the New. Which shews the weak- 
ness of those frequent remarks Dr. Clarke has bestowed upon the word 
'aretVToxf at«£ as the great term of distinction between the person o** 
Christ, and that of God the Father. * 



TRINITY OF PERSONS, 1^7 

And that there was the presence of God the Holy 
Ghost, is determined by Acts xxviii. 25. Well spake 
the Holy Ghost by Esaius the prophet unto our fa- 
thers, saying, &e. then follow the words which the pro- 
phet affirms to have been spoken by the Lord of hosts. 
The text of John xii. 41. which being compared 
with this of Isaiah, proves the second person of the 
trinity to be the Lord of hosts, is evaded by Dr. Clarke 
in the following manner : " The glory which Isaias 
saw, Isa. vi. 1. is plainly the glory of God the father; 
whence the followers of Sabellius conclude, because 
St. John here calls it the glory of Christ, that there- 
fore the Father and the Son are one and the same 
individual person."* It is concluded by the Ortho- 
dox of the church of England, that the person of Christ, 
and the person of God the father, are not one and the 
same individual person, ljut one and the same Lord of 
hosts ; because the scripture, thus compared hath af- 
firmed them so to be; and THIS is the conclusion 
Dr. Clarke should have answered. But instead of 
this, he has produced the monstrous aud impossible 
doctrine of Sabellius, that they are one and the same 
individual person, and answered that : which to be 
sure is easily done, and is quite foreign to the purpose. 
The other conclusion, which is the only true and na- 
tural one, is kept out of sight, because it cannot be an- 
swered : and this of Sabellius is slurred upon his cre- 
dulous readers, as the doctrine of the orthodox, who 
disclaim and abhor it. This is no slander ; for let 

a Page 102, 



128 THE PLURALITY AND 

any person read his b^ok with a little circumspec- 
tion, and he will soon find who and what he would 
mean by the followers and doctrine of Sabellius. And 
let me give the reader the following caution, which 
he will find to be of great service in detecting the fal- 
lacious answers of the Arian writers in their contro- 
versies with the orthodox. Always be careful to ex- 
amine whether they have replied to the proof itself, 
or to something else in the place of it. For when you 
have obtained any clear evidence from the scripture, 
that two or more perons are one God, one Lord, &c. 
they will give a new face to your conclusion, by 
changing the terms God or Lord, which are names of 
a nature, for that of person, which can belong only to 
an individual. And then they shout for victory. O, 
say they, this man is a Sabellian ! he believes three 
persons to be one person ! But on the other hand, if 
you make it appear that in the unity of the one God 
or Lord there are more persons than one, then they 
change the word persons for that of Gods:- so that you 
are confuted this way also; and they cry you up for 
a Triiheist , a maintainer of three Gods ! By the help^ 
of this artifice, Dr. Clarke attempted to deal with the 
scripture ; and the author of an Essay on Spirit with 
the Creeds and Liturgy of the church^ And, though 
it be a matter scarce wi>rth mentioning, thus also the 
authors of a Monthly Review have attempted to deal 
with myself. Some time ago I published a full an- 
swer to the Essay on^Spirit, which has sipce been re- 
printed in Ireland, and I humbly hope may have done 
some little service. But when these gentlemen had 



TRINITY OP PERSONS. *&9 

deliberated with themselves upon it for three or four 
months, it was retailed from their scandalous shop as 
a system of Tritheism, SabeUianism, and what not ? I 
hope God will forgive them ! and this is all the an- 
swer I shall ever make to such men and such writers. 



CHAPTER IV, 

turn 

TMIJV2TY 1W UNITY. 



If there be any diversity of nature, or any essential 
subordination in the persons of the godhead, it must 
be revealed to us either in their names, or their attri- 
butes, or their acts; for it is by these only that they 
are or can possibly be made known to us in this life. 
If the scripture has made no difference in any of these, 
farther than that of a personal distinction (which we 
all allow) we are no longer to doubt that there is a 
natural or essential unity in the three persons of the 
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. It shall there- 
fore be shewn in this chapter, by a sort of proof more 
comprehensive than what has gone before, that these 
persons have the same names, the same attributes, the 
same counsel or will, and all concur, after an ineffable 
manner, in the same divine acts ; so that what the 
scripture is falsely supposed to have ascribed to God 
in one person, will appear to be ascribed by the same 
authority to God in three persons. That therefore, 



THE TRINITY IN UNITY. 131 

these three persons are but one God; they are three 
distinct agents, yet there is but one and the same di- 
vine agency ; or, as the church has more fully and bet- 
ter expressed it, that " that which we believe of the 
glory of the Father, the same we are to believe of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, without any difference 
or inequality 1 '* 

i. 

The trinity in unity is the one Lord, the creator of 
the world. 

Psalm, xxxiii. 6. By the Word of the Lord were 
the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath 
(Heb. Spirit) of his mouth. The whole trinity there- 
fore created the world ; yet this trinity is but one Lord : 
for it is written, 

Isa. xliv. 24. I am the Lord that maketh all things*, 
that stretchcth forth the heavens ALONE, that spread* 
eth abroad the earth BY MYSELF. It follows there- 
fore, either that the Word and Spirit did not make the 
heavens : or, that the Father, with his Word and Spi- 
rit, are the ALONE Lord and creator of all things. 

n. 

The trinity in unity is the one supreme being or 
nature, distinguished from all other being9 by the 
name Jehovah. For the scripture gives us the folio**** 
ing position. 

a Proper IVeface upoo the Feart of Trinity* 



13S THE TRINITY IN UNITY, 

Deut. vi. 4. The Lord our God is ONE JEHO* 
VAH: and again, Psal. lxxxiii. Thou whose name 
ALONE is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the 
earth. 

Yet Christ is Jehovah. 

Jer. xxiii. 6. This is the name whereby he shall be 
called, JEHOVAH our righteousness. 

So is the Spirit also. 

Ezek. viii. 1. 3. The Lord JEHOVAH put forth 
the form of an hand and took me, — and the SPIRIT 
lift me, &c. see also Chap. II. Art. IV. and XXIV, 

Therefore, the Father, the Son, and the Holy- 
Ghost are the ONE Jehovah : they are three persons 
yet they have but one name and one nature. And it 
is the great advantage of this argument, that the name 
Jehovah is not capable of any such equivocal inter- 
pretations as that of God; it has no plural; is com- 
municable to any derived or created being ; and is 
peculiar to the divine nature, because it is descriptive 
of it. The author of an Essay on Spirit has endea- 
vored to avoid the force of this proof, by pretending 
that there are two Jehovahs, one a distinct being from 
the other. But in this he has exposed the cause he 
meant to defend, and left the argument in a worse 
state than he found it : for if there be two, then it is 
false that there is a most high over all the earth, whose 
name ALONE is Jehovah ; and let him try if he can 
reconcile it. Dr. Clarke also pretends, in the titles 
to two of his sections, wherein the collection of texts 
is very numerous, to have set down the passages 
wherein it is declared that the second and third persons 



THE TRINITY IN UNITY. *33 

derive their being (that is the expression he was not 
afraid to make use of) from the Father. But he has 
not produced one such passage ; no such thing being 
declared in the whole bible ; and the contrary to it is 
plainly revealed under this application of the name 
Jehovah. 

in. 

The trinity in unity is the Lord absolutely so called ; 
in Hebrew, Adonai ; in Greek, o Kvpt(&. 

Rom. x. 12.f The same LORD over all is rich un- 
to all that call upon him. 

Luke ii. 11. A Saviour which is Christ the LORD. 

Rom. xi. 34. For who hath known the mind of the 
LORD, or who hath been his counsellor ? Which Lord 
as we learn from the prophet whence this is quoted, . 
is the Spirit; for it is written, Isai. xl. 13. Who hath 
directed the SPIRIT of the Lord, or being his counsel- 
lor hath taught him ? That the person of the Spirit is 
the Lord, is also plain from 2 Cor. iii. 18. Now the 
Lord is tliat Spirit — o fo xvpt&> to Ilvevf^ec env — we are 
changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord; 
xct$ec7TE£ aw Kvpix Ilv evf4etT&> , as by the Lord the Spirit ; 
which is all along to be understood of the personal 
Spirit, because the apostle begins expressly with that 
at the 3d verse of this chapter. And it was from the 

t The reader is desired 'to observe, that as I cannot in all cases fix 
upon a text that does precisely distinguish the person of the Father, 
I shall therefore be frequently obliged, as in this instance, to set a pas- 
sage down in theirs* of the three ranks, that does confessedly denote 
the true God, 

M 



i34 THE TRINITY IN UNITY. 

authority of these words — The Lord is the Spirit— ad- 
ded to those of ver. 6. — the Spirit giveth life — that 
the council of Nice borrowed the following clause of 
its ©reed — " I believe in the Holy Ghost> the LORD 
and GIVER OF LIFE." 

IV. 

The trinity in unity is the God of Israel. 

Matth. xv. 31. The multitude glorified the God of 
Israel. 

Luke i. 1 6, 1 7. The children of Israel shall he turn to 
the Lord THEIR GOD : and he shall go before HIM* 
— that is, before Christ. 

2 Sam. xxiii. 2, 3. The SPIRIT of the Lord spake 
by me — the GOD of Israel said, &c. So that unless 
he who spake was one being and he that said was 
another, the Spirit is the God of Israel. 

# Dr. Clarke allows that the word him means Christ, 
yet denies that he is intended by the Lord their God y 
which is the antecedent to it : and calls this a manner 
of speaking.* 

v. 

The divine law, and consequently the authority 
whereupon it is founded, is that df a trinity in unity, 
Rom. vii. 25. I myself serve the LAW of GOD* 
Gal. vi. 2. Fulfil the LAW of CHRIST.* 
Rom. viii. 2. The LAW oftlie SPIRIT of life.* 

a No. 534. 



THE TRINITY IN UNITY. 13# 

The divine law then, is the law of God, Christ, and 
the Spirit of life. But it is written, Jam. iv. 12. There 
is ONE LAWGIVER who is able to save and to de- 
stroy : therefore, these THREE are ONE. And here 
we have the true reason why the scripture has repre- 
sented the whole trinity as tempted and resisted by the 
disobedience of man. For sui being the transgression 
of the Law, and the law being derived from the un- 
divided authority of the Father, the Son and the Holy 
Ghost, every breach of it is an offence against the 
trinity : therefore it is written, 

Deut. vi. 16. Thou shalt not TEMPT the LORD 
thy God. 

1 Cor. x. 9.— Neither let us TEMPT CHRIST. 

Acts v. 9. How is it that ye have agreed together 
to TEMPT the SPIRIT of the Lard? For Dr. Clarke's 
opinion of this matter, see Ch. II. Art. XV. 

* # Dr. Clarke has left both these texts out of his 
collection ; though he pretends to have set down all 
the highest expressions relating to Christ and the Spirit. 

VI. 

The mind and will of God is the mind and will of 
a trinity in unity. 

The mind of God. 

1 Cor. ii. 16. Who hath known the MIND of tlie 
LORD ? 

Ibid.— We have the MIND of CHRIST. 

Rom. viii. 27. He that searcheth the hearts knoweth 
what is the MIND oftlie SPIRIT. 



136 



THE TKINITY IN UNITY* 



The will of God. 

1 Thess. iv. 3. This is the WILL of GOD. 
Acts xxii. 1 4. The God of our fathers hath chosen 

thee that thou shouldst know HIS WILL.* 

2 Pet. i. 21. Prophecy came not in old time by 
the WILL of man ; but holy men of God spake as they 
were moved by the HOLY GHOST. 

* This passage is meant of Christ and of his will. 
The God of our fathers (said Ananias) hath CHOSEN 
thee, &c. but the person in God who appeared to An- 
anias and said of Saul h$ is a CHOSEN vessel untQ 
ME, was the Lord, even Jesus. Acts ix. 15, 17. For 
want of comparing the scripture with itself, Dr. 
Clarke has set down the text of Acts xxii. 1 4. as a 
character ©f the Father only. No. 365. 

VII. 

The power of God is the power of a trinity in unity, 

Eph. iii. 7. — The grace of GOD given unto me, by 
the effectual working of HIS POWER. 

2 Cor, xii. 9— That the POWER of CHRIST may 
rest upon me. 

Rom. xv. 19 — Signs and wonders by the POWER 
of the SPIRIT of God. 

The scripture therefore has ascribed divine power, 
and that in the same exercise of it, (the ministry and 
miracles of St. Paul J to Christ and the Spirit in com- 
mon with God the father. So that when all glory 
and power is ascribed to the only wise God, what God 
can that be but the trinity ? Upon this principle the 



THE TRIMTY IN UiNITT. 1^7 

scripture is easily reconciled : upon any other it is 
unintelligible, as the reader may soon find by con- 
sulting Dr. Clarke and some other of the Arian wri- 
ters i t who to avoid this plain doctrine, have tried to 
amuse us with a religion made of scholastic niceties 
and unnatural distinctions, which no man can under- 
stand, and which themselves are not agreed in, nor 
ever will be to the world's end. Yet they often dis- 
pute against us from the acknowledged simplicity of 
the scripture ! 

vni.* 

The trinity in unity is eternal. 

Rom. xvi. 25, 26. The ministry — made manifest 
according to the commandment (cctmm) of the EVER- 
LASTING GOD. 

Rev. xxii. 13. I (Jesus) am the FIRST and the 
LAST.* 

Heb. ix. I A.— Who through (aimm) the EVER- 
LASTING SPIRIT. 

# Dr. Clarke allows these words, in this place, to mean 
Christ, yet where the same words occur in Rev. i. 8. 
with the addition of the epithet Almighty, he denieg 
it; a though they are demonstrated to be spoken of 
the same person by the context and tenor of tha 
whole chapter :f and he tells us, the character in one 
place differs from the other. So that upon his princi- 
ple, the scripture has revealed to us two different be?- 
ings, both of whom are the first and the cast, yet not 

a See No. 68S, 414, f See the not* at chap. Ill, at. XjX, 

M 2 



136 the TRINITY IN UNITY. 

coeternal. Which is sufficient of itself to justify all 
that was said above concerning his distinctions, &c. 
See Ch. L Art. III. 

IX. 

Is TRUE. 

John. vii. 28. He that sent me is TRUE. 

Rev. iii. 7. These things saith he — that is TRUE, 
he that hath the key of David, &c. 

1 John v. 6. It is, the Spirit that beareth witness, 
because the SPIRIT* is TRUTH— * «*«**« THE 
truth. 

x. 

Is Holy. 

Rev. xv. 4. Who shall not fear thee, O LORD, 
and glorify thy name ? far THOU ONLY art HOLY. 

Acts iii. 14. But ye denied THE HOLY ONE, 
and desired a murderer to be released unto you, &c. 
See also Dan. ix. 24. and Rev. iii. 7. 

1 John ii. 20. Ye have an unction from THE HO- 
LY ONE; that is an anointing from the Holy Ghost, 
who is called, 

John xiv. 26. TO *s7uv\am TO xyuv, The Spirit the 
Holy one, 

XI. 

« — — Is omnipresent 
Jer. xxiii. 24. Do not I fill heaven and earth saith 
m LORD ? 



THE TRINITY IN UN*T¥, 139 

Eph. i. 22.— The fulness of HIM (Christ) that filleth 
all in all. 

Psal. cxxxix. 7, 8. Whither shall I go then from thy 
SPIRIT ?— if I go up into heaven THOU art there; 
if I go dorm into hell, THOU art there also. 

XII. 

■ Is the fountain of life. 

Deut xxx. 20.— Love the LORD thy GOO, for HE 
is thy LIFE. 

Col. iii. 4. When CHRIST who is OUR LIFE 
shall appear, &c. 

Rom. viii. 10. The SPIRIT is LIFE. 

xni. 

The trinity in unity made all mankind. 

Psal. c. 3. The LORD he is GOD, it is HE that 
hath MADE US. 

John i. 3. By HIM (Christ) were ALL THINGS 
MADE. 

Job xxxiii. 4. The SPIRIT of God hath MADE me, 

XIV. 

Quicken the dead. 

John v. 21. The FATHER raiseth up the dead and 
QUICKENETH them. 

Ibid. Even so the SON QUICKENETH whom 

he will. 

k Ibid. vi. 63. It is the SPIRIT that QUICKEN- 
ETH. 



140 



THE TRINITY IN ©N1TT. 



XV. 

■ Instruct us in divine knowledge. 

John vi. 45. They shall be all TAUGHT of GOB. 

Gal. i. 12. Neither was I TAUGHT it but by the 
revelation of JESUS CHRIST. 

Johnxiv. 26. The comforter, the holy SPIRIT , will 
TEACH you all things. 

XVI. 

Have fellowship with the faithful. 

1 John i. 3. Truly our FELLOWSHIP is with the 
FATHER.— Gr. JHoimn*. 

Ibid. AndwUhhis Son JESUS CHRIST. 

2 Cor. xiii. 14. The FELLOWSHIP (Kavwia) of 
the HOLY GHOST be with you all. 

XVII. 

Are spiritually present in the elect. 

1 Cor. xiv. 25. GOD is IN YOU of a truth. 

2 Cor. xiii. 5. CHRIST is IN YOU except ye be 
reprobates. 

John xiv. 17. The SFlRlT^—druelleth with you 
and shall be IN YOU. 

So again, 

2 Cor. vi. 16. GOD hath said, I will DWELL in 
iliem. 

Ephes. iii. 17. That CHRIST may DWELL in 
your hearts, 



THE TRINITY IN UNITY. 44* 

R©m. viii. 11. Hfe SPIRIT that DWELLETH in 
you. 

XVIII. 

— — Reveal to us the divine will. 



Phil. iii. 15. God shall REVEAL even this untoyw. 

Gal. i. 12. Neither was I taught it but by the RE- 
VELATION of JESUS CHRIST. 

Luke 2. 26. It was REVEALED unto him by the 
HOLY GHOST. 

So again, 

Heb. i. 1. GOD who SPAKE unto the fathers by 
the prophets. 

2 Cor. xiii. 3. Ye seek a proof of CHRIST SPEAK- 
ING in me. 

Mark xiii. 11. It is not ye that SPEAK, but the 
HOLY GKOST. 

And as prophecies are revealed by, so are they 
also delivered in the name, that is, by the special au- 
thority of each person in the godhead. For though 
the usual introduction to any divine revelation be— 
Thus SAITH the LORD— jet we also find the ex- 
pressions— These things SAITH the SON of GOD, 
Rev. ii. 18. And— Thus SAITH the HOLY 
GHOST, Acts. xiii. 3. — with many other passages to 
the same effect. 

xix. 

Raised the body of Christ from the grave. 



1 Cor. vi. L4. GOD hath both RAISED UP tlw 
Lord, and will also raise us up by his OWN POWER. 4 



i*S THE TRINITY IN UNITY. 

John ii. 19. Destroy this temple, and in three days I 
WILL RAISE IT UP. 

1 Pet. iii. 18. Christ — being put to death in the 
*ksh, but QUICKENED by the SPIRIT. 

* See Art. VII. of this Chapter. 

XX. 

— Conduct the people of God. 

Isai. xlviii. 17. I am the LORD thy GOD, which 
LEADETH thee by the way that thou shouldst go. 

John x. 3. He (Christ the Shepherd) calkth his 
own sheep by name, and LEADETH Hum out. 

Rom. viii. 14. As many as are LED by the SPIRIT 
of Gody they are the sons of God. 

XXI. 

■ Give a commission and authority to the minis- 
ters of the gospel. 

2 Cor. iii. 5, 6. Our sufficiency is of GOD, ?vho hath 
MADE us able MINISTERS. 

1 Tim. i. 12. JESUS CHRIST— counted me 
faithful, PUTTING me into the MINISTRY. 

Acts v. 28. Take heed tlierefore — to all the flock 
over the which the HOLY GHOST hath MADE you 
OVERSEERS. 

XXII. 

Sanctify the elect. 

Jude 1.— To them that are SANCTIFIED by 
GOD, the FATHER. 



THE TRINITY IN UNITY. 143 

Heb. ii. 11. He that SANCTIFIETH and they 
who are sanctified are all of one ;for which cause he is 
not ashamed to call them brethren. 

Rom. xv. 16. Being SANCTIFIED by the HOLY 
GHOST. 

XXIIL 

Perform all spiritual and divine operations. 

1 Cor. xii. 16. It is the same GOD which WORK- 
ETH ALL IN ALL. 

Col. iii. 11. CHRIST is all and IN ALL. 

1 Cor. xii. 11. But ALL these WORKETH that 
<me and the self-same SPIRIT, 



CONCLUSION. 



Let us now take a review of what has been col- 
lected in these papers, and sum up the evidence in its 
ewn natural terms. 

It has appeared from the first chapter, that Christ 
Jesus, whose divinity is daily blasphemed amongst 
us, because it is not proved in the Scripture, is the 
Lord of Hosts? the first and the last, h than whom there 
is no greater? and beside whom there is no God: d that 
he is the Saviour of the world? the Lord and God of 
the holy prophets* and apostles fi the most high God, h the 
searcher of all Jiearts,* comprehended and made known 
to us under the name of that God to whom the world 
was reconciled.^ Who though he was the Word of God 
that came forth from the Father into the world; yet. 
he was God} and of the same divine nature m with him 
that sent him. Though he was perfect man, of the 
seed of Abraham, born of his mother, and in all things 
made like to his brethren ; yet the fulness of the god- 
head dwelt in him bodily* Though he suffered, died, 



a Chap. I. Art. I. II. III. 


e IV. 


i XLIII. 


n XVIII, 


b III. 


f V. 


kXIV. 


o xlve 


cXLV. 


gXI. 


1 XIX. 




4MB. 


h IX. 


ra XLIV. 





CONCLUSION, ^45 

was pierced upon the cross, and redeemed us by hi« 
blood ; yet that blood was the blood of God? and upon 
his cross Jehovah was pierced.^ 

That the objections urged against all these positive 
proofs, proceed wholly upon false principles ; being 
drawn, partly, from natural religion and philosophy \ 
which never was nor ever will be subject to the law 
of God ; and is not intended so to be by those who 
set it up and dispute for it. Partly from the econo- 
mical offices and humiliation of Christ in the flesh ; r 
in which it is nevertheless affirmed, that God himself 
was made manifesto And lastly, from the unity^ of 
God so often asserted and insisted upon in the scrip- 
ture ; not in opposition to the godhead of Christ, but 
to the idolsu then worshipped all over the heathen 
world. Hence it is, that God is called the true God ; 
for they were false ones: one God; for they were 
many? the living God ; w for they were vanities with- 
out life. Yet in the place of these idols, who are to 
supply the contrast, they have substituted the person 
of their blessed Redeemer, the true Godp the everlast- 
ing Father J the Lord of Glory? who is able to subdue 
all things to himself and of whose kingdom there shall 
be no end. 

From the second chapter it has appeared, that the 
Holy Ghost is our spiritual Father* by whose divine 
power we are begotten to a new life ; and to whom we 

P XLIX. t XXIV. XXXIII. x 1 John v. 20. 

q XMV. u XXII. 1 John v. 2!. y XX. 

r XXV. XXVI. XXXIX. v 1 Cor. viii. 5, 6. z 1 Cor. ii. 8. 

s 1 Tim. iii. 16. w Act? xiv. Ij, a Chap. IJ. Art. I 

N 



146 CONCLUSION. 

daily pray that he would not lead us into temptation^ 
That he is the Lord, c even the Lord of Hosts,^ the 
ruler of the christian economy, calling men to that 
honor in his church, which God only* can bestow upon 
them. That he is incomprehensibly united with God, 
and sensible of the omnipotent will in himself; even 
as the human Spirit is united to man, and understand- 
eth its own thoughts.* That his power, is the immedi- 
ate power of God himself ;§ his inspiration, is the in- 
spiration of God J* his presence, the presence of GodA 
That he is God* even the highest ; for the man Christ 
Jesus, who is the Son of God, and the Son of the high- 
est, was so called BECAUSE he was begotten of the 
Holy GhosO 

That the objections usually brought to disguise and 
destroy this evidence, are taken from the unity, the 
attributes and will of God, and the ministration of the 
Spirit in the economy of grace ; all of them falsely in- 
terpreted. 01 For as to the unity of God, it is not an 
unity of person. As to the supreme attribute of good- 
n£ss, it is also possessed by the Spirit. As to the will 
of God, according to which the gifts and graces of 
ihe Spirit are distributed, it is opposed to the will of 
man, not to that of the Spirit ; which is said to blow 
where it listeth, and to divide or distribute unto every 
man his gifts, not as man the receiver, but as he him- 
self willeth* 



bXI. 


fXIII. 


k VIII. 


c III. 


gXVIL 


1XXI. 


a xxil 


h VI. 


m XXIII. XXIV. 


s II. 


i IX. V. XX. 


n XXV. 



CONCLUSION. 1*7 

It has appeared from the third chapter, that God 
is signified to us throughout the Old Testament by a 
name that is plural, and proved to be such from many 
particular instances ; yet generally so restrained and 
qualified, as to destroy the suspicion of a plurality of 
gods. That to this common name of God, many 
other plural names and expressions are added ;P and 
that an interchanging of the plural and singular*! is 
frequently observed, which neither grammar nor rea- 
son can account for upon any principle, but that of a 
real divine plurality. That the persons of God are three 
in number, precisely distinguished on some occasions 
by the personal names of the Father, the Word, or 
Son, and the Holy Spirit, 1 and also by different offices. 
That the same term is not always peculiar and proper 
to the same person ; because the words God, Lord, 
Jehovah, and Father, are sometimes applied to one 
person, sometimes to another; while at other times 
they are not personal, but general names of the divine 
nature. That in the Lord of hosts, 9 sitting upon his 
throne, and speaking of himself in the plural to the pro- 
phet Isaiah, there was not one person only, but three ; 
the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost, all expressed 
under one name in the Old Testament, but personal- 
ly distinguished to us by three different ones in the 
New, where this matter is referred to. 

In the fourth and last chapter, the passages of the 
scripture have been laid together, and made to unite 
their beams in one common centre, the unity of the 

o Chap. HI. Art. I. q IX. X. 8 XIX. 

p V. VI. VII. VIII. r XVIII. 



148 CONCLUSION. 

trinity. Which unity is not metaphorical and figur- 
ative, but strict and real : and there can be no real 
unity in God, but that of his nature, essence, or sub- 
stance, all of which are synonymous terms : this unity 
considered in itself, is altogether incomprehensible : 
but it is one thing to read and to know that there is a 
divine nature, and another thing to describe it. That 
it is proved to be an unity of essence ; 1st. Because the 
three persons are all comprehended under the same in- 
dividual and supreme appellation. They are the one 
Lor d absolutely so called. 1 The creator of the world, 
and the God of Israel." 2dly, Because they partake 
in common of the name Jehovah, w which, being inter- 
preted, means the divine essence : and what it signifies 
in one person, it must also signify in the others ; as 
truly as the singular name Adam, in its appellative ca- 
pacity, expresses the common nature of all mankind. 
And this name neither is nor can be communicated, 
without a contradiction, to any derived or inferior na- 
ture, as well on account of its signification as its appli- 
cation, which is expressly restrained to one only. 3dly, 
It is farther proved in that the authority? the secret 
mind? or council, and the power 2 ' by which all things 
are established and directed, is ascribed to Christ and 
the Spirit in common with God the Father; and that 
in the same exercise of it, and upon the same occa- 
sions. 4thly, Because there is a participation of such 
divine attributes^ as cannot subsist but where they 
are original. Our understanding, if it be moderately 

t Chap. IV. Art. I. HI. w II. y VI. a VIII. IX. X. XI. XIL 
u IVe x VI. z VIL 



CONCLUSION. 149 

instructed, will satisfy us there can be one only who is 
eternal^ and possessed of holiness , truth, life, &c. in and 
from himself. Yet the whole trinity is eternal, holy, 
true, living and omnipresent : therefore these three were, 
and will he one God from everlasting to everlasting, 
5thly, and rastly, Because there is a concurrence of 
the whole undivided godhead in all those acts,b every 
one of which have in them the character of a divine 
wisdom and omnipotence ; and express such an inti<= 
mate union and communion of the holy trinity, as the 
understanding of man cannot reach, and which no 
words can explain. For though it is and must be one 
God who doth all these things, yet it is the Father, the 
Son and the Holy Spirit, who gave us our being, in- 
struct and illuminate us, lead us, speak to us, and are 
present with us; who give authority to the church, 
raise the dead, sanctify the elect, and perform every 
divine and spiritual operation. 

This is the God revealed to us in the holy scrip- 
ture ; very different from the deity so much talked of in 
our systematical schemes of natural divinity ; which 
with all its wisdom, never yet thought of a Christ or. 
an Holy Ghost, by whom nature, now fallenand blind, 
is to be reformed, exalted, and saved. The Bible 
we know to be the infallible w r ord of God \ the rule, 
of our faith and obedience* I find this doctrine re- 
vealed in it; therefore I firmly believe and submit to 
it. And as the liturgy of the church of England 
hath affirmed the same in all its offices, and contains 

¥ XIII. &c ad fin* 

N2 



130 



CONCLUSION. 



nothing contradictory thereto; I believe that also: 
and hope the God whom we serve will defend it against 
all attempts toward reforming Christianity out of it : 
that the church militant here on earth, may continue 
to agree in this fundamental doctrine with the church 
triumphant in heaven. For there the angels rest 
not day and night, praising this thrice holyp blessed 
and glorious trinity. They have neither time nor 
inclination to dispute against that glory, which they 
cannot stedfastly behold. And had we a little more 
humility and devotion, we should not abound so 
much with disputation. If, in such a subject as this, 
we trust to our own reason, and it should prove at 
last to have betrayed us into error, irreligion, and blas- 
phemy ; what shall we have to say in excuse for our- 
selves ? We shall not dare to plead the dignity and 
strength of our rational faculties before the tribu- 
nal of him who came into the world to bring the wis- 
dom of it to nought. And if the religion of Jesus Christ 
is to be corrected and softened till it becomes agreea- 
ble to the natural thoughts and imaginations of the 
human heart, then in vain was it said — Blessed is he 
whosoever shall not be offended in me. 

As for him, who is convinced that God is wiser 
than himself; who believes as he ought, and as the 
catholic church of Christ hath given him an example 
from the beginning ; his danger lies on the other side : 
and while I venture to give him warning of it, T be- 
seech him to suffer the word of exhortation, and to take 

e Chap. III. Art. XIX, 



CONCLUSION i5i 

in good part the faithful wounds of a friend. Let 
him take care then, that while he values his ortho- 
doxy, he be not led unawares to overvalue it, by draw- 
ing false conclusions from it, and conceiting himself 
to be already perfect. If he knows and believes in 
the true God, he doth well : but let not that which is 
an honor to him be any encouragement to dishonor 
God ; the knowledge of whom will only serve to in- 
crease our condemnation, if we live in any lust of con- 
cupiscence^ even as the Gentiles who knew him not. And 
though it be the faith of a Christian, and not his mo- 
rality \ that distinguishes him from the rest of mankind ; 
yet that faith must appear in the conduct of his life ; 
even as love to a friend is best witnessed by a readi- 
ness to do him service. It is true, the service is not 
the love, nor of equal value with it ; yet the love that 
refuses the service will be accounted as nothing. 
The mystery of faith is an invaluable treasure ; but 
the vessel that contains it must be clean and unde- 
filed ; it must be held in a pure conscience ; as the 
manna, that glorious symbol of the word of faith 
preached to us by the gospel, was confined to the ta- 
bernacle, and preserved in a vessel of gold. A 
mind that is conformed to the world, and given up 
to its pleasures, though it repeat the creed without 
questioning a single article of it, will be abhorred in 
the sight of God, as a vessel unfit for the master's use ; 
and unworthy, because unprepared, to stand in the 
most holy place. It is the great excellence of faith, 
that it can produce such a transformation in the life 
and manners, as no other principle has any power to 
do: and many are possessed of this truth without apply-. 



■*5£ CONCLUSION. 

ing it to their own advantage. It is to be feared, 
that a consciousness of this damps their zeal, and cre- 
ates that poor, pitiful, cowardly indifference, so much 
in vogue ; which if it had not by accident found the 
name of charity, would have been ashamed to shew 
its face in a Christian country. They are cold and 
backward to promote any religious conversation; 
they will not appear to be in earnest about their faith 
in the eyes of the world, lest they should be forced to 
abridge somewhat from the gaity of their lives, and 
to live as they speak. But let them remember, that 
without holiness no man shall see the Lord : no dross or 
impurity of this world will be suffered to continue in 
his sight. And in this, he is no hard master, reaping 
where he hath not sown, and requiring the fruit of 
good works without giving us strength and ability to 
bring them forth. He has provided for us the pre- 
cious blood of the Lamb, and offered to us the assis- 
tance of his holy Spirit, that we may be enabled to 
serve that living God in whom we believe. If we are 
purged by him, we shall be clean : if he washes us, we 
shall be whiter than snow : and when the kingdom of 
God shall come, and all his glory shall appear, we 
shall be prepared to behold his face in righteousness. 
This, and no other, is my sincerest wish and 
prayer for every Christian, who shall give himself the 
trouble to peruse these papers ; in which I pretend- 
to no merit but that of a transcriber ; which I shall 
always esteem to be honor enough, where the word 
©f God is my original. And if they should be any 
way instrumental to promote so good an end, he will 
not have read, nor shall I have written, in vain. 



A 

L.ETTEB 

TO THE 

COMMON PEOJPE,E 9 



IN ANSWER TO SOME 



POPULAR ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE TBINITY, 



APPENDIX 



TO THE 

CATHOLIC DQCTBINE OF THE TRINITY. 



LETTER 



TO THE 



COMMON 3PJ&OJPJL1E. 



MEN AND BRETHREN, 

AS Christians and members of the church of Eng- 
land^ you have been taught, that the true God, whom 
you are bound to believe and worship, is a trinity in 
unity. In the name of these three persons, the Fa- 
ther, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, you have been 
baptized: and in the litany are directed to pray to 
this holy, blessed and glorious trinity, three persons and 
me God, that he would have mercy upon us miserable 
sinners. 

From the first propagation of the gospel, there has 
been a sort of men in the Christian church, who had 
too high an opinion of their own knowledge and wis- 
dom to submit quietly to this doctrine. They pre- 
tended it was contrary to their reason and common 
sense, and impossible in the nature of things, that the 
true God should be made manifest in the flesh for the 
salvation of the world ; and hence they argued, that 



156 A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 

the incarnation must either have been a delusion, a 
fact brought to pass only in shew and appearance ; or 
that the person incarnate must have been some crea- 
ted being, far inferior in power and dignity to the di- 
vine nature itself. 

About three hundred years after the death of Christ, 
when Paganism, or the worship of idols, was losing 
its influence in the Roman empire, this heresy being 
come to its full growth, did immediately supply the 
place of it, and prospered to such a degree, that it 
overspread the greatest part of the east, and ended 
at last in the imposture of the false prophet Mahomet ; 
whose doctrine was readily embraced wherever Ari- 
anism prevailed, and no where else among Christians ; 
and his disciples do at this day most zealously deny 
that trinity which you worship. 

When the teachers of the church found themselves 
disturbed, and their people corrupted, more and more 
by the daily increase of this heresy ; upwards of three 
hundred Christian bishops, many of whom had been 
tortured and maimed in the heathen persecutions, as- 
sembled together at the city of Nice in Biihynia, and 
one AriuSy a principal promoter of this wickedness, 
was summoned to appear before them : his doctrine 
and writings were condemned ; the faith which these 
boly men had brought with them to the council was 
declared, and is now preserved in the Nicene Creed; 
which form we make use of in the church because it 
comprehends the sense of our faith in a few words. 
But we do not rest our belief upon the authority of 
any humaa form, because the doctrine therein expres- 



k LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE, 157 
sed is secured by the unquestionable authority of the 
Old and New Testaments. 

The evidence of this faith, as it is found in the 
scripture, I have endeavoured to extract and metho- 
dize in the best manner I could. The work was made 
public rather with an humble and charitable desire 
to assist the studies of the younger clergy, than to 
instruct the common people ; and therefore it was 
first printed at Oxford. Nevertheless, I am well per- 
suaded, that so many o£ the arguments therein con- 
tained are level to all capacities, that an unlearned 
reader may thence be able to satisfy himself, and in- 
form his Christian neighbors. I shall therefore have 
no occasion in this place to urge any new evidence 
from the scripture, but only to refer to some of the 
old ; it being the design of this address to obviate a set 
of popular arguments, which have been made use of 
by some nameless writers to turn your affections from 
the doctrine of the trinity ; most of which might be 
applied with as much propriety to prejudice you against 
any other article of faith in the Christian religion. 

I. You know, my dear brethren, that pride is a very 
prevailing passion in human nature; and unless we 
are very much upon our guard, and are fortified with 
the true principles of Christian humility, we are all 
of us in danger of being ensnared by it. Men are 
proud of their clothes, and proud of their riches, and 
proud of their titles ; but, above all, they are proud 
of their understanding. Some men are endued with 
a strength of mind which enables them to bear up 

with cheerfulness under the common trials of sick- 
O 



158 a LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 

ness, and losses, and disappointments ; while, perhaps, 
the same men cannot endure the thought of being 
cheated and imposed upon, because it is a reflection 
upon their understanding. Our adversaries, therefore, 
hoping to make the stronger impression, apply them- 
selves first of all to your pride, and inform you, that 
this doctrine of the trinity is imposed upon your con- 
sciences by church authority A But if the fact be laid 
before you, it will soon appear that no point of faith 
is thus imposed upon you by the church of England* 
The points of faith which you are required to believe 
are interwoven with all the forms and offices of our 
public liturgy. They are collected together for the 
younger sort of people in the church catechism ; and 
for all teachers, whether clergy or laity, they are 
drawn out more at large in the articles of religiofi^ 
generally printed at the end of the book of common 
prayer. So that all the articles of faith being impo- 
sed in the same manner, it will follow, that they are 
all imposed by church authority or none of them. 
Let us put it to the trial, and begin with the first ar- 
ticle of the creed— I believe in God the father almighty. 
How is this article imposed ? Does the church deter- 
mine by her own authority whether there is a God or 
not ? And so for the rest. Does the church deter- 
mine whether there is a Christ, or an Holy Ghost ? 
whether there will be a resurrection of the dead, and 
a life everlasting ? Certainly the church neither does 

d See the title-page of a pamphlet called " An Appeal to the Com- 
mon Sense of all Christian People," &c. printed for Millar % in the 
Strand, 



A LETTER TO THE OOMMOM PEOPLE. *59 

nor can pretend to determine any of these thing3 for 
us ; because where any thing is determined by author- 
ity, such authority must be superior to what it deter- 
mines: to suppose which, in this case, would be 
equally false and presumptions. Therefore the truth 
of the matter is this; that the church does only 
declare that faith which4t has received ; and instead 
of her imposing, this faith is imposed upon the church 
by the uncontrollable authority of God in the holy 
scripture, to which every private Christian is referred 
for the proper evidence of any particular doctrine, 
and for that of the trinity among the rest. Those 
articles which are of a nature inferior to the church 
itself, are the only subjects of church authority. 
Thus, as the body is more than the raiment that is 
worn upon it ; so the life and being of the church is 
superior to those outward regulations, which serve 
only to the order, decency, and well being of it ; and 
which the church may, for this reason, appoint, al- 
ter, and improve by her own authority. But if any 
man informs you, that points of faith, or moral prac- 
tice, are imposed upon your consciences by the same 
authority, he has either mistaken the case, or is him- 
self endeavouring to impose upon your understanding. 
II. But " the gospel," they say, " was designed for 
persons of all capacities," and unless all persons of 
common sense are qualified to understand what the 
Lord requires of them, we must " charge almighty 
God with dealing unfairly with his creatures." e Now 

e Ibid. p. 2. 



160 a LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE; 
if the gospel be so easy that nothing but bare com- 
mon sense is wanted for the understanding of it, why 
do these authors write so many books to help you to 
understand it in the Avian sense? If you are able, as 
they flatter you, to instruct yourselves out of the gos- 
pel, then their practice is a contradiction to their 
principle, and their labor is superfluous by their own 
confession. My brethren, we do not argue in this 
manner ; we know that you have sense and ability to 
understand the merits of a cause, and are ready to hear 
reason, when it is plainly represented to you: but if 
you were able to make all things intelligible to your 
ownselves, w r e should neither preach to you nor write 
books for you. 

When God appointed teachers in his church (1 
Cor. xii. 23.) he certainly did not suppose that the 
congregation would be equally capable of teaching 
themselves. If this were true, then indeed God would 
seem to have dealt unfairly with Christian people, 
by appointing a ministry of learned men, and pro- 
viding for their instruction, as if bare common sense, 
with the Bible in its hand, were not so sufficient as 
our adversaries would have you beJieve ; in opposi- 
tion to us> but not to themselves. 

The duty of a Christian minister is to teach ; his 
studies are intended to qualify him, and his time is 
set apart for that purpose. For the bulk of people, 
God hath appointed labor and business of another 
kind, as necessary to support themselves and thei r 
families ; and their duty is to hear. But if God has 
required you to do our work and your own too, then 



A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. **H 

your lot is hard indeed. You will not, therefore, 
think it any reflection upon your common sense, that 
God has appointed an order of teachers in his church, 
who will never desire you to believe what they are 
not at all times feady to prove ; but will rather be- 
seech him that these teatchers may be endued with 
faith and affection to fulfil the labor of love to which 
(hey are called, and courage to declare that truth 
which they have learned from the holy scriptures ; 
and by thus praying for the clergy, you will convince 
them, that God hath added grace to your common 
sense, arid that you practise that Christian charity 
which is more acceptable in his sight than the at* 
tainments of learning and knowledge ; for these are 
no more than temporary qualifications, and are to be 
used only as means ; but charity is the end and per* 
fection of all. 

III. They tell you, moreover, that people of all sort* 
have a right to judge for themselves in matter sj^f reli^ 
gionJ As this principle very nearly affects the peace 
of the Christian world, and the salvation of individu- 
als, I would advise you to inquire strictly into the 
meaning of these terms ; and to consider how far 
they may be justified, and how far they are to be con* 
demned. Right is a pleasing thing, and liberty is an 
old temptation; but if any Christian -doth so assert 
his right against an human law, as to depart from 
his obedience and subjection to the divine law> 
tuch a right Vili do him no good when he has got it, 

f Ibid. p. 122, 

02 



46a A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE 
because it will not protect him under hia religious 
mistakes against the superior judgment of God ; so 
far from it, that it is probably one of the chief mis- 
takes he will have to answer for. 

When they assert that you are to judge for your- 
selves, they must mean, either that you judge of 
truth by its proper evidence ; or that by a certain 
prerogative of conscience, you are to guess for your- 
selves what is right or wrong, without any evidence 
at all. If only the former of these senses is intended, 
they say no more than we all say, and what the 
church hath said ever since the reformation. If the 
latter is also allowed, and unlearned people have a 
right to follow their conscience (that is, their incli- 
nation) without any evidence, or with some false 
and partial representation of it ; then it will follow, 
that the difference between good and evil is not real, 
but imaginary ; that truth and falsehood, like tempora- 
ry fashions, are not the objects of reason but of fancy ; 
which doctrines, if admitted in their full latitude, 
would turn all reason and religion upside down ; and 
I think they have done it in part already. 

When they come to apply this principle, they 
take occasion to add, that if you are convinced of such 
doctrines as they teach you, viz. that God almighty 
is only one and the same person ; that the Holy Ghost 
Is first minister in the government of the church; that 
he has angels to assist him; that Christ is to be hon- 
ored with mediatorial worship, &c. " then yoi* have 
a right to protest against the Athanasim creed "£ But 

s P. 1R 



A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 183 
I say, neither you nor I can possibly have any such 
right as this, unless we are convinced by sufficient 
reasons. Our persuasion can never be turned into 
an argument; unless it be also maintained, that a 
man who is persuaded can never be mistaken. The 
Mahometans are convinced, that their Alcoran is a 
divine revelation; that all Christians are guilty of 
blasphemy in believing, and idolatry in worshipping, 
a trinity in unity : and that they have aright to pro- 
test against the foundations of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. But as they are convinced of these things 
for very bad reasons, we pity the blindness of their 
understanding, and only laugh at the right they have 
assumed, as one of those many groundless castles, 
which human vanity and bigotry have builded in the 
air. 

But allowing that Arians thus convinced have a 
right of protesting, what are orthodox Christians 
to do on the other hand ? Have they no right ? Does 
a persuasion confer a right on one side, and none on 
the other ? That would be very unreasonable. There- 
fore we, who are convinced that the creed of Atha- 
nasius is more agreeable to the scripture than the doc- 
trines of Arianism, have a right to remonstrate against 
the repealing of it ; though we can never expect to do 
so, without being persecuted and reviled for it as long 
as we live. 

IV. To prejudice your minds against the Athana- 
sian creed, they inform you, that the doctrine of the 
trinity, as there set forth, is not expressed in the words 
of scripture \ there are no such propositions to be found 



16* A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 
in the declarations of Christ and his apostlesji By 
this it is meant, that you do not find any such expres- 
sions as — trinity in unity — not three eternals, but one 
eternal — and such like. The best course you can 
take upon this occasion, is to argue with them upon 
their own principles, which generally stop a man's 
mouth sooner than any other. Ask them, where 
they find it asserted in the words of scripture, almighty 
God is one supreme intelligent being, or person? Ask 
them in what chapter or verse, Christ or his apos- 
tles did ever declare, that the Holy Spirit is first 
minister in the government of the church; and where 
it is said that he has Angels for his assistants ? Ask 
them, again, where they meet with the proposition 
-r-the worship of Christ is inferior, or mediatorial? 
And you might ask them twenty more such questions, 
which they can never answer upon their own prin- 
ciples : so that they have employed an argument to 
corrupt you, which returns upon themselves, and 
with this disadvantage on their side, that they have 
departed from the sense as well as the words of scrip- 
ture ; but the church, if, besides the words of scrip- 
ture, it uses others, does still retain such a sense, as 
the words of scripture will clearly justify. 

V. But lest you should believe this, they assure 
you the Athanasian creed has proposed a downright 
contradiction as an article of faith: and if this be the 
case, then indeed we must allow that such a contra- 
diction cannot be justified by the words of scripture. 
" You must believe (say they) if this creed has any 

h P. S. 



A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 16S 

weight, that three Gods is one God."* If you exa- 
mine the creed itself, you will find no such doctrine as 
they have put in it ; but, on the contrary, that the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are NOT 
THREE GODS, but ONE GOD ; and again, « We 
are forbidden by the Catholic religion, to u say, there 
be three Gods." I pray you to observe this ; and to 
consider with yourselves, whether our adversaries, 
supposing them to be satisfied in their own conscien- 
ces that they were able to confute the Catholic doc- 
trine of three persons, and one God, would have en- 
deavoured to take advantage of your simplicity, by 
putting this false notion of three Gods into the place 
of it? 

VI. Upon other occasions they try to give you 
an ill opinion of our ecclesiastical forms, by calling 
them the decrees of fallible men£ and creeds of human 
invention ;1 which is a very mean objection, unless they 
who make it, and propose a contrary sort of belief, 
are themselves infallible. We readily own that the 
persons, who drew up the forms used in the church, 
were men like ourselves. But did they deliver the 
doctrine of these forms as their own doctrine, or as the 
doctrine of almighty God in the scripture ? If they 
delivered it as their own, then their fallibility would be 
a pertinent consideration : but if it is the doctrine of 
the scripture, then the fallibility of the men who de- 
livered it, is nothing to the purpose ; and as such on- 
ly we take it, using our own private judgment in re 

i P. 87. k P. ft I R 37. 



166 A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 

lation to the men, but submitting our reason to the 
infallible Spirit of God. A judge who sits upon the 
bench by the king's authority, to determine civil 
causes, is a fallible man : but so far as he makes the 
law of the land the rule of his judgment, he is infalli- 
ble. And we never attempt to persuade you, that the 
teachers of our church are infallible, but so far only as 
they make the scripture the rule of their judgment. 
Therefore, when you hear them reflected upon as falli- 
ble men, do them so much justice as to ask yourselves 
the question, whether they who make this objection 
are themselves infallible ? Is not the author of an 
Appeal to the Common Sense of all Christian People a 
fallible man, when he tells you, in terms of human 
invention, that God is one supreme intelligent agents 
4W person? that the holy Spirit is his first minister ? 
that Christ did really suffer in his highest capacity ? m 
that he is to be honored with mediatorial worship ? 
Doth he not deliver these doctrines as a fallible man ? 
Yea verily, not only as one who may be, but who ac- 
tually is, deceived, if the scripture is true. 

VII. As a farther encouragement to opposition, 
you are taught that any body may deny the trinity 
upon protestant principles. And here give me leave 
to tell you, my friends, that there are some people 
who seem to think it is the profession of a, protestant, 
not to believe but to deny ; and that a man is no good 
protestant, unless he disputes every thing that falls 
in his way. Had this been the true Christian spirit, 

m P. 57o 



A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 1 ^7 

our Saviour would probably have recommended it to 
his hearers, by setting a bear, or a tyger, or a fox, 
before them, and proposing these creatures as the 
best examples of it. Instead of which, he shewed 
them what his followers ought to be, by presenting 
to them a little child as their pattern ; whence the 
people were to understand, that as a little child 
receives the instruction of its parents, without any 
of the perverse disputings of a corrupted mind; so 
ought they to receive the kingdom of heaven, that is, 
the doctrine of the gospel. This is a disposition 
lovely in the sight of God and men, and so far from 
rendering the possessors of it more liable to be impos- 
ed upon, that none but persons of this temper are able 
lo discern the truth when it is offered, according to 
that expression of Christ — I thank thte, O Father, 
Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things 
from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto* 
babes. There would be more peace in the world 
than there is new, if men would but remember this ; 
and there would be more wisdom too : for none are 
so blind as they who are always boasting of the quick- 
Bess of their own eye-sight ; they are so filled up with 
the opinion of their understanding every thing, that 
it is impossible to make them understand when they 
are mistaken. 

But it may be dangerous to enlarge any farther 
upon this subject, lest it should be suspected that I 
am leading you into Popery. 

There is, however, ft very false light, in which 
your liberty, as Protestants, is represented toyou : and 



468 a LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE, 
therefore I think it my duty to make you aware of 1 
" No Protestant (they say) can, consistently with 
acknowledging the scripture as the only rule, charge 
you with the least presumption, for bringing decrees 
not found there to the test of a rational inquiry." 11 
The decree here alluded to is the doctrine of a trinity 
in unity. As to myself, my whole book bears witness 
for me, that I thought it my own duty, and would 
have it also be your practice, to bring this doctrine 
to the test of scripture, as the only sufficient rule in 
such a case. And I am persuaded, no reasonable 
Christian will have any objection to your proceed- 
ings, if you examine in the best manner you are able, 
whetlier the Catholic doctrine of the trinity is found in 
the scripturCjOr not. But we shall charge you justly 
with a great deal of presumption, if you undertake to 
compare it with scripture as a decree not found in 
scripture : * for this is to beg the question ; that is to 
take it for granted that a decree is false, and then 
compare it with the scripture to see whether it be true. 
If this is your method, you must unavoidably con- 
clude as your advisers have done before you. To 
prevent which, I recommend those words of the wise 
man — He that answereth a matter, before he heareth it, 
it is folly, and shame unto him. A Protestant who 
enters upon a mock inquiry with these prejudices and 
anticipations, is guilty of great injustice towards his 
Christian brethren, and is all the while putting a trick 
upon himself. 

n P. 6. o fi-ov. xiv, 13, 



LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. *69 

If you consult the discourse to the reader, prefixed 
to the Catholic doctrine, you will see, toward the latter 
end of it, upon what grounds I have charged the 
learned Dr. Clarke, and his followers, with this unfair 
practice of bringing to the scripture that knowledge 
which they ought to receive from it. Perhaps you 
never heard any history of that author, therefore I 
will tell you thus much of him: that he was a man 
greatly to be respected for his temper and scholarship ; 
but it happened, unfortunately for his character as a 
Christian, that he wrote a celebrated book upon the 
being and attributes (or perfections) of God; and hav- 
ing discovered, as he thought, by the force of his own 
wit, what God w r as and must be in all respects, he 
rejected the Christian doctrine of the trinity ; and to 
put the best face he could upon his unbelief, spent 
much of the remainder of his life in writing ambiguous 
comments, and finding various readings, that is, in 
picking holes in the Bible. 

The author of an Appeal to the Common Sense of 
all Christian people, calls him, ihe immartal Dr. Clarke,^ 
£nd has borrowed from him the substance of that whole 
book, which was the worst thing he ever wrote in his 
life. The glittering characters of great, learned, and 
immortal, are frequently thrown out with an inten- 
tion to dazzle the eyes of common readers ; and chiefly 
by those writers who are most forward to accuse us 
of an implicit obedience to human authority, and tltc 
decrees of fallible and interested men. But if you leave 
the faith and hope of a Christian, your loss will be 

? Pre/act. 
P 



170 a LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 

equally great, whether you are tempted to it by the 
Pope of Rome, or by the immortal Dr. Samuel Clarke. 
VIII. Now we are upon the subject of human 
characters, I will propose to you, on the other hand, 
those learned and godly martyrs, who were concern- 
ed in reforming the church of England from the 
errors of Popery. If the doctrine of the trinity is so 
contrary to the scripture, as our adversaries would 
have you believe, how did it happen that these men, 
who were certainly endued with all the advantages 
and ornaments of human learning, and had the Bible 
so often in their hands, that they translated every 
word of it into the English tongue, suffered this doc- 
» Irine of the trinity to stand unreformed ? I will shew 
you how the Arians endeavoured to solve this diffi- 
culty, which is indeed a very great one. They say 
" it may fairly be presumed, that as they were just 
come out of the gross corruptions of Popery, they did 
aot se# the whole truth as it is in Jesus."q So that 
BOtwithstanding their resolution to reform, yet Popery 
Bung about them still, and they did not reform so much 
as they ought to have done. But if you are to be 
guided by presumptions, you will soon discover, that 
the fairer presumption is on the other side, when the 
mature of men and things upon such occasions is rights 
ly considered. When tares growing amongst wheat are 
to be plucked up, there is not nearly so much danger 
that any tares should be left behind, as that some of 
ihe wheat should be plucked up along with them. 
If you have a crooked stick in your hand, and would 
make it straight, the first step you take is to bend it 

«j Ibid. p. 4, 



A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 471 

too much the contrary way; after which it may come 
to be right at last. Just so it happens, that if man- 
kind are offended with any thing, and sensible of a past 
error, they are apt to fly from it with such an undis- 
tinguishing aversion, as to fall, before they are aware ? 
into the contrary extreme: and their prejudice if they 
have any, is not for but against, what they are cor- 
recting. Instead of doing too little, they are in dan- 
ger of being in such a heat as to overdo every thing 
they set about : whence it is most naturally to be infer- 
red, that our divines, who reformed the errors of Pope- 
ry* were not then inclined to act in favor of Popery. 
A spirit of reformation is an excellent thing ; and I 
wish to God it abounded amongst us more than it €loes 3 
provided it would exert it3 force against those real 
corruptions, which are but too visible to all seri- 
ous members of the church of England; but unless 
it is tempered with great wisdom and caution, it de- 
generates naturally into a spirit of contradiction. 
Which things being considered, I would advise you 
not to be influenced by any presumptive reflections 
upon the judgment of our first reformers, till the 
Arians are able to prove, by some direct evidence^ that 
the doctrine of the trinity, as now expressed in our 
creeds and offices, is an unreformed article of Pcpery< 
IX. Our adversaries lay so great a stress upoa 
this charge of Popery, and find it so convenient at 
every turn, that they are determined to make Papists 
of us at any rate : therefore they assure you, in words 
not fit for a Chistian to repeat, that " the church of 
Remt h?.d aa good a right to impose the worship of 



±72 A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 
angels, and the virgin Mary, upon the consciences 
of men, as the church of England had to impose the 
worship of the holy Spirit as God, and of three per- 
sons as one God." r The Papists, without question, 
will thank them for putting the worship of the virgin 
Mary upon a level with that of the holy Spirit. But 
this respect being paid to the Papists at our expense, 
If is proper you should be made acquainted with the 
merits of this affair. 

The Papists do not pretend to justify their worship 
of the blessed virgin by any precept or example of 
xhe scripture ; but tell you in some fabulous legends, 
what heavenly favors have been granted to her wor- 
shippers ; that ignorant people may be encouraged to 
fne like idolatry. But where will the Arians find 
any such stories imposed by the church of England, 
to justify the worship of the Holy Ghost ? 

If you ask the Papists how they can prove that 
we ought to worship the blessed virgin, the best argu- 
ment they can allege, is the practice and infallibility 
of their own Roman catholic church : but do we ever 
attempt to quiet your scruples with any pretensions, 
to unscriptural authority, or personal infallibility ? 

Let us pass at length to the scripture itself, 
which will shew you how dangerous it is for unlearn- 
ed and well-meaning people to trust themselves in the 
hands of an Arian reasoner. 

Doth the scripture in any chapter or verse of it, 
call the bodies of Christian people the temple of the 
virgin Mary ? But the apostle St. Paul saith— -K nam 

j P. 123. 



A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. *78 
ye not that your bodyU tlwtemyleoftlw Holy Ghost? 8 
And what is the use of a temple ? Is it not an house 
of prayer, praise, and sacrifice ? He that has a tem- 
ple must be entitled to divine honors in it ; or we shall 
be guilty of idolatry when we worship him in his 
own temple ; which is absurd. The apostle himself 
makes this practical inference in the words which 
immediately follow — Therefore glorify God in your 
body. And if the word' God in this place denotes an 
object of worship exclusive of the Holy Spirit, (as 
our adversaries are obliged to suppose, or give up the 
point) then it will follow, that the temple belongs to one 
being, and the glory and worship to another ; which is 
one of those many strange things you are bound to be- 
lieve, before you can be of the Arian opinion.* 

Can you find it any where written in the scrip- 
ture, that the angels of heaven worshipped the virgin 
Mary ? Read the sixth chapter of the prophet Isaiah, 
in which the seraphim ascribe glory to that Lord of 
hosts who spake the following words to the prophet 
— Go, and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand 
not, &c. Now St. Paul teaches us, in the last chap- 
ter of the Acts, that these words were spoken by the 
Holy Ghost. So that when we say, u glory be to the 
Father, and to the Son, and to the HOLY GHOST," 
we have the example of the seraphim in heaven for 
this way of worship; a consideration which will 

8 See Cath. Doct. Chap. ii. Art; 10. t You may see the author 
of the Jppeal driven to this absurdity, and endeavoring geriously tc 
uphold it, if you consult his book, p, 61 } 62, 
P 2 



17* A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE, 

make us easy under all the opposition it meets with 
here below in the world. u 

When you have reflected upon these things, then 
you may ask yourselves the question, whether Chris- 
tians who are born of God are any where said to be bom 
of the virgin Mary ? Whether the apostles, who were 
called of God to the ministry of the gospel, were cal- 
led of the virgin Mary ? Whether the virgin Mary 
can be tempted and blasphemed by sinners ? Whether 
she conferred divine inspiration upon the prophets of 
the Old, or the apostles of the New Testament? 
Whether we are baptized in the NAME, that is 
into the religion and worship of the virgin Mary ? 
But all these things and many more, are true of the 
Holy Spirit ; who dwelling in our body as in his own 
temple, is therein to be served and glorified; and 
being also worshipped and glorified, together with the 
Father and the Son, by the angels of heaven, I think 
we have a better right to worship him here upon 
earth, than the Papists have to worship the virgin 
Mary. 

Our adversaries would persuade you we have so 
tittle to say upon this subject from the scripture, that 
it is a great favour in them not to triumph over us, 
and insult us for it. w As if it were no insult upon 
the church of England to suppose her worship as 
groundless as the idolatry of the Papists ! 

The argument drawn from the words of Isaiah 
with those of St.. Paul is very plain, and very close : 
** The Lord of hosts, whom the seraphim glorified, 

q See Cziho Doct Chap. III. Art, XIX. w See Appeal, p, 104. note. 



A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. *75 

spake those words which were spoken by the Holy 
Ghost : therefore the Holy Ghost is the Lord of hosts 
whom the seraphim glorified." Yet the author of 
the Appeal declares, that nothing can be more fallacious 
than this way of reasoning, and that he could in the 
same manner conclude that Isaiah is the Lord, because 
the words of the Lord (I was found of them that sought 
me not) are applied to Isaiah, Rom. x. 20. Where 
the apostle thus introduces them — But Esaias is very 
bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me 
not.* This author, I believe, is the first Christian who 
did ever suppose, that the apostle applied the words 
in this verse to the person of Esaias ; or those in the 
preceding to the person of Moses. This, however, 
is not worth insisting upon, because he has mistaken 
the nature of the argument. The force of it lies 
here ; that the speaker of the words above mentioned, 
as they stand in the prophet Isaiah, is called by the 
name of tlie Lord of hosts, was glorified by angels, 
seated upon the throne of heaven, and sent a prophet 
by his own authority ; and this speaker, as St. Paul 
informs us, was the Holy Ghost. If the scripture 
doth any where assert that Isaiah spake under the 
same name, and with the same circumstances, then 
we shall be ready to allow that the cases are pa* 
rallel, and will worship him also. Had the objec- 
tor expressed himself clearly, his meaning would have 
appeared to be this : that because God speaks by a 
prophet, and speaks also by his Holy Spirit, as much 
may be inferred in honor of the one as of the other, 

x P. 63. 



176 A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 

But when God speaks by a prophet, he speaks by 
another ; when he speaks by his Spirit, he speaks by 
himself. He reconciled the world by Jesus Christ, 
but not as by another; for God was in Christ recon- 
ciling the world to himself. So when he speaks by 
his Spirit, he speaks by himself; as truly as a man 
utters his voice by the spirit or breath of his own 
mouth; or searcheth his own thoughts by the opera- 
tion of his own mind. I am not afraid to insist upon 
this comparison, because I borrow it from St. Paul ; 
and it demonstrates such an unity between God and 
the Spirit of God, as Christians believe, and Arians 
do not: nor do they attempt to get over it by any 
solution I have yet seen, which will not also prove 
that a man and his spirit are two different beings ; or 
that we may correct an apostle's argument till it 
squares with our own opinion. In this manner rea- 
sons the author of the Appeal. The Spirit is re- 
presented as a person who searcheth the deep things of 
God, and consequently he cannot be GodJ But if he 
cannot be God, because he searcheth the things of 
God ; then the spirit of a man cannot be man, be- 
cause it knoweth the things of a man. But observe 
how he proceeds : " No man, says he, can know or 
make known to others the thoughts of a man, but 
either the man himself, or he to whomsoever the man 
will discover them" In which words the premises 
are manifestly changed. The apostle saith, what 
man knmveth the things of a man but the spirit of man 
which is in him ; that is, the man himself; but tht 

yP.6fc 



A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 177 

author of the Appeal says, either the man himself, or 
some other. The scripture itself gives us the catho- 
lic conclusion ; this alteration of the scripture will 
admit of the Arian conclusion. From St. Paul's 
comparison, the Spirit is God himself; from this 
author's, he is either God himself, or some other. 

X. In a book lately published against the articles 
of religion, under the title of The Confessional, I have 
met with a new objection to our way of worship ; 
which, as it can deceive none but common readers, I 
shall present you with in this place. " The Athana- 
sian creed says," as the author of this work observes, 
-that in ALL THINGS the unity in trinity and 
the trinity in unity is to be worshipped."z Then he 
asks, " Is this the case in ALL our forms of worship ? 
Turn back to the litany" (that is, turn forward, the 
litany stands after the Athanasian creed) " and you 
will see three distinct invocations of the three per- 
sons, to each of whom the term God is assigned, im- 
plying a sufficiency in each, in his personal capacity, 
to hear and grant the petition." This he assures 
you, is a remarkable and notorious deviation from the 
Athanasian maxim ; and that others might be given in 
great abundance. 

By an Athanasian, he means a Christian maxim ; 
but calls it Athanasian, that your faith may seem to 
stand in the wisdom of men: and our deviation from this 
maxim is evident to him, from the three distinct in- 
vocations in the beginning of the litany. But if you 
look into the litany itself, you will discover, that these 

a Confessional, p. 319 



178 A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE, 
three invocations are followed by a fourth, addressed 
to the " holy, blessed, and glorious trinity, three per- 
sons and ONE GOD." In the three former petitions, 
the unity in trinity; in the fourth, the trinity in unity 
is worshipped. But of this fourth he takes no notice ; 
and then accuses the church of a remarkable and no- 
torious deviation from her own maxims ; whereas he 
ought to have taken the whole address together, and 
then have urged his exceptions, if any such could 
have been reasonably made against it. To take one 
portion of any form, abstracted from another which 
completes it, and then charge his brethren with 
defects and contradictions of his own making, is 
agreeable neither to sound criticism, nor indeed to 
common equity. Such a practice as this will con- 
vict even the scripture itself of atheism : for if you 
leave out the words— The fool hath said in his heart, 
there will remain the naked assertion— There is no 
God. Or it might be proved from the gospel, as I 
once heard it attempted by an excommunicated infi- 
del, that the Old Testament is now to be utterly con- 
demned and laid aside, because it is said — Hang all 
the law and the prophets. But if the sentence be taken 
in the form in which the scripture hath given it, the 
sense is entirely altered; and so it happens with the ob- 
jection lately discovered by the author of the Confes- 
sional. His brethren, as you have seen, accuse us of be- 
lieving in three Gods; and he mocks at our worship, a# 
if it could be reconciled with no other principle* 



A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 179 

XL But it is said farther, that the doctrine of the 
trinity is an offensive doctrine* which has done infinite 
mischief to the cause of Christ's religion, and that it 
is in vain to expect the conversion of Jews, Mahometans ', 
and Heathens f> so long as we hold this doctrine neces- 
sary to salvation. 

On such occasions as this, the gospel, I fear, will 
countenance but a very small degree of compliance. 
In matters indifferent, and for the sake of those who 
have not yet broken the bond of peace and Christian 
unity, every concession ought to be made that can be 
made with innocence. But if we once quit our moor- 
ings, to launch out into the boundless ocean of wordly 
policy, miscalled moderation, in search of proselytes, 
whose pride, pleasure, and merit it is, not to be found 
and converted, we shall be rewarded with shame and 
disappointment, and shall also make shipwreck of our 
own faith. 

The Socinians objected it to us long ago, that the 
doctrines of the trinity and incarnation prevent the 
conversion of Mahometans, Jews, and Pagans. And 
the same doctrines hinder our Arians and Socinians 
too from being converted : the true character of the 
Christian Saviour, and the true object of Christian 
worship, being so essential to the gospel, that no man 
is to be accounted a convert, till he agrees with Chris- 
tians in these articles. Were we to after the Chris- 
tian faith into what Jews, Turks, and Pagans believe, 
then we should gain them all 5 for then we should 

a R 66. of the Appeal b 133, Ibid. 



180 A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 

be agreed; that is, we should cease to be Christian* 
as well as they. 

If this reasoning is of any force in one case, it must 
be admitted in others. The trinity, they say, is so 
offensive to the Turks, that we shall never gain them 
till it is given up. No : nor then neither. For Ma- 
homet gave them a liberty of having several wives ; 
but Christ hath taught us, that God in the beginning 
made them male and female, and that a Christian must 
have no more wives than Adam had. Of this doc- 
trine I may therefore say, with as much reason as 
the Arians do of the trinity, that it has done infinite 
mischief and that we can never expect the conversion 
of Mahometans, so long as it keeps its place in the 
gospel of Christ. If an Arian or Socinian were to 
preach in the streets of Constantinople, insisting pro- 
perly upon this doctrine, he would make no converts : 
for the Turk will as soon be persuaded to worship the 
trinity in unity, or even three different Gods, as sub- 
mit to have no more than one wife. And this may 
serve to shew the weakness and absurdity of such 
popular arguments; to which, I apprehend, our dis- 
putants against the church would not apply them- 
selves so very often, could they depend safely upon 
better topics. If the present faith and worship of the 
church are against the scripture, that is enough ; and 
we shall waut no other arguments to persuade us out 
of them. But if they are not, I leave you to judge, 
my friends* whether we ought to forsake them out of 



A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 181 
civility to the Turks, who pray five times a day that 
they may never become Christians. 

But there are Papists in the world who have souls 
to be saved as well as the Turks ; and what would 
they think of us, if we should gratify Jews, Heathens, 
and Mahometans, by denying the trinity ? They have 
always been sound in the belief of this doctrine ; and 
we could never hope to recover any proselytes from 
the errors of Popery 5 but, on the contrary, should 
make the religion of Protestants more odious than 
ever, if, under the name of reformation, we were to 
root up the foundations of the gospel. You have heard, 
perhaps, that they have called us heretics for these two 
hundred years past ; and very falsely : but if we should 
abjure the Christian trinity, we should no longer have 
the name for nothing ; but should be guilty of adding 
that truth to the accusation, of which they would not 
fail to make their advantage. And lastly, the far 
greater part of the Protestants would reject us. 

These things being considered, we are brought at 
length to the following issue : that to please some, we 
must part with the doctrine of the trinity; and to please 
others, we must keep it. Which may shew plainly 
enough what I have had in view from the beginning 
of this epistle, that merely popular arguments are of 
no use towards settling points of scriptural doctrine ; 
but may be turned this way or that as the manager 
finds it most convenient. Discretion and charity are 
indeed to be consulted by every Christian, and on 
every subject ; but a writer who has a good cause to 
maintain, and knows where its proper strength lies, 
Q 



182 a LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 

will not go out of his way to amuse people with what 
is nothing to the purpose. Whereas, if a cause is not 
so strong as it should be, popular considerations serve 
so put the reader into an heat ; and when a man's 
passions are up, he will hear no reason on one side, 
and requires none on the other. 

XII. There is one more of their insinuations, 
which is the last I shall make any remarks upon at 
present ; and it is this, vis. that " there are several 
clergymen of the church of England, who groan un- 
der the weight of the Athanasian forms and worship, 
that would be very glad of your assistance to be de- 
livered from so great a burden upon their consiences." c 
For the credit of the church of England, I hope there 
are not many such : but if any clergymen should be 
so mistaken as to imagine, that a contempt for any of 
the Christian doctrines is an argument of their supe- 
rior sense and learning, they are more truly the objects 
of pity, than of envy or imitation : and your Arian 
counsellors, who are so forward to caution you against 
human authority, will give me leave to advise you not 
to depend upon human example. An error is still an 
error though it resides in a clergyman ; a»d instead of 
being thereby sanctified, is only more deformed and 
dangerous than it was before. A profane oath, or a 
curse, would sound the more horrible, if a bishop 
were to have the uttering of it. A toad is an hideous 
creature in every situation ; but is never so much ab- 
horred as when it creeps into the best room of the 
house, The ministers of Christ are the salt of tfa 



A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 183 

earth : and if this salt have lost its savor, wherewith 
shall it be seasoned? 

The scripture will teach you, that the worship of 
the golden calf was a grievous sin, though Aaron, 
who was a clergyman, had the making of it. And 
there w r as a time, when the whole body of the clergy, 
I mean the Jewish, determined Christ himself to be 
a blasphemer and deceiver, and were instant with 
loud voices requiring that he might be crucified. 

Those clergymen, who, like Dr. Clarke and his fol-> 
lower, the author of the Appeal, do by their own con- 
fession believe two different Gods, while they falsely 
accuse us of believing three, would undoubtedly be 
very glad to be well rid of a trinity in unity ; as the 
Turl^s were, when they took the religion of Mahomet 
intoHhe place of it. And if they should at length 
prevail, by dint of popular clamor and importunity, 
of which some wonderful effects have been seen in 
this kingdom, the Turks, and the Jews too, would 
congratulate them upon their victory ; and so would 
every determined Deist and Atheist in the nation. 
Yet, after all, none of them would worship that 
imagined inferior deity, whom this author would per- 
suade you to worship. 

I believe it also to be very true, that they would, 
as their advocate tells you, be very glad of your assis- 
tance. And I have been considering with myself in 
what form and manner your assistance can be admin- 
istered. They can hardly mean, that you should as- 
sist them with the pen, and write books upon refor- 
mation; for very fe\x amongst you are scholars: nor 



184 



A LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE. 



with the tongue, for you are no orators. And I know 
not how you can assist them otherwise, except it be 
with fire and sword, as the reforming clergy were 
assisted in the last century, when loyalty was malig- 
nity, and episcopacy was antichristianity, and the 
most miserable oppression and slavery of two thirds 
of the people, was celebrated as a state of Christian 
liberty to the prevailing party. 

We know, but too well, that the gospel, with all its 
doctrines, is an insupportable burden to those who do 
not believe it ; and so is the law of the land to those 
who do not like to be under the restraint of it. Some 
men are fond of liberty in one shape, and some in 
another. Some think as they please ; and others act 
as they please. This latter sort of people, many of 
whom are groaning under the weight of political forms* 
would also be very glad of your assistance toward 
amending the constitution, and restoring gentlemen 
to that state of freedom, in which they might follow 
their consciences without any danger. And, per- 
haps, they would not object to your assistance as un- 
warrantable in the sacred cause of liberty, though 
you should accomplish their purposes by pulling the 
magistrate from his chair, the judge from his bench, 
the two houses of parliament from their seats, and the 
king from his throne. 

These are the prospects I have before my eyes, 
when I hear Deists and Socinians haranguing the 
public upon the subjects of conscience and imposi- 
tion : which prospects having been once realized in 
this church and kingdom, cannot be deemed altoge- 



A LETTER TO THE COMMOM PEOPLE, 185 
ther chimerical. Such popular reasonings as I have 
now been contending with, have already produced 
the most fatal consequences, to the triumph of the 
Papists, and the scandal of the reformation t they have 
deceived you once : and unless you are upon your 
guard, they will deceive you again : and the last error 
shall be worse than tlie first ; worse in itself, and worse 
in its consequences. It pleased God to deliver the 
church from its captivity under the Puritans and the 
people from their infatuation : but if experiments, 
when they have been tried, leave us no wiser, or, per- 
haps, not so wise as they found us, it is much to be 
questioned whether we shall again meet with the like 
indulgence : at least, it will be safest always to bear 
in mind that course of divine providence in a similar 
instance, proposed as a warning to all Christians by 
the apostle St. Jude, how that the Lord having saved the 
people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed 
them that believed not. 

Those authors who would stir you up to seditious 
motions, make you so many fair speeches, and lay 
claim to so much candor and charity, that you may 
easily mistake them for your best friends. But I must 
now leave you to judge for yourselves, whether a 
writer, who lies sculking in the dark, under a name. 
less title-page, can really love you better than one, 
who is not afraid to subscribe his name at length to 
what he has written, and is exposing himself for your 
sakes to be reviled and persecuted in the monthly 
publications of infidel critics, who on account of the 
information I have here given you, with a desire to 



186 a LETTER TO THE COMMON PEOPLE; 

clear away some of that dust, which they and their 
friends are perpetually throwing into your eyes, will 
find, if possible, some worse names for me than they 
have ever done yet. They have expressed their 
wrath against me more than once or twice; and 
probably they will now do it again. But a little 
more ill language will do me no harm ; and if I can 
do you any good at such an expence, it will all be 
cheerfully taken by your 

Very sincere friend, 

And most affectionate 

Brother in Christ, 

WILLIAM JONES. 

PluckleV, Dec. 16, 1766. 



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